pune

seems like i just can’t get away from this topic of money. saty was going on about the cost of living in pune, and the cost of the rooms... well, he was in this business after all.  i got the government bus from hospet bus station to pune. the sleeper buses were more expensive, of course, but probably a lot more comfortable! i learnt my lesson. the bus was late, wasn’t even sure it was the bus ‘cos it only had bellary - bijapur written on the board in the window. but i asked one young man and he confirmed it was the bus to pune. the conductor took away my e-ticket... probably surprised to see someone travelling with one on a government bus. i had booked it in hampi thinking it would save me some hassle, but it seems like there quite a few buses running the bellary – pune route, albeit via different intermediate stops.

sunil was good company. he was in the i.t. business and a follower of ishkon (aka the hare krishnas). he said the bus was taking a zig-zag route to bijapur via some local villages... he wasn’t too happy about that as it put 4 extra hours on his trip home to bijapur. he was courteous to buy me some snacks and dinner when we stopped off at a dhaba at 11pm, refusing my attempts to pay him. “you are my guest”, he said. i was sorry to see him leave, and it was a cold draught pouring through the rickety old bus throughout the night. got out somewhere in pune red-eyed from lack of sleep, and got a city bus to near koreagan park. lucky lucky. and got lost trying to find the german bakery... before asking and discovering it was still being reconstructed after the bomb blast devastated it 2 years ago. no wonder i got lost... there was also a 5 star hotel immediately opposite that was not there 8 years ago. now i had got my bearings, i found saty’s place easily, but the watchman was a grumpy old git who got me to call saty so that he could tell him to give me the key.

saty came in the evening and we chatted a long while. saty is a sitar master giving concerts around the world. he also rents out rooms at his apartment in pune. that’s how i met him 8 years ago: then, i had just finished the 10-day vipassana course at igatpuri and got to pune. after chilling at the german bakery for a bit, i got hassled by a hotel/rickshaw tout who had waited for me to show me a place to stay. i tried to get away from him but he was persistent. then i saw a jesus-looking man walking up towards us, and i asked him to help. i explained to him the situation, and after saving me from the tout,  he told me to follow him. he took me back to the place where he was staying and introduced me to saty, the sitar master and landlord. ‘jesus’ was actually called guy, from israel, and he was a musician and composer. he was also good company and a great artist.

saty was also an osho follower, and he usually had osho meditation resort attendees renting his rooms seeing as the ‘ashram’ was only a stone’s throw away. good business too... prices in pune had soared into the stratosphere. so i was lucky when we agreed to a mate’s rate of 300 rupees for a mat on the terrace floor. i made dinner for us and the 2 other ‘osho’ guests and a couple of saty’s local friends too: alu gobi sabji, of course, and red lentil curry and rice. i tried to follow the hindi as much as i could, but i was out of practise. and surprisingly enough, the osho trio were on the drink. anything goes with osho. makes me wonder if it is osho’s meditations that the guys are after, or maybe something else!

pune had lost its charm... just another busy indian city with interesting city wildlife. it was a stepping stone for mumbai...  and i took the train into the metropolis with saty when he left to see his family. i had to make my own arrangements seeing as couchsurfing mumbai had let me down really bad. makes me wonder if it is cultural exchange that the guys are after, or maybe something else!