City Ratings - Pune

 I had floated the idea of rating cities by a few things that matter to a common citizen. Here is my first attempt, at rating Pune, where I live.

Commuting. Buses.. reasonable, but not as well-maintained as Bangalore. Some areas over-served, some under. 6 on 10

Metro- inadequate network. Last mile connectivity not well thought out. Cost is reasonable though. 6 on 10.

Cleanliness- roads are not cleaned adequately, particularly garbage clearance is sloppy.. 5 on 10..

Autorickshaws- very good, both metered and Uber are available at most places. 8 on 10.

Weather- better than most places, except Bangalore- 8 on 10.

Food/drink options- plenty, and growing. Seafood, North/South Indian joints are plenty, so are pizza places. Craft beer is homegrown too, like Effingut, Pune-based. We also have TOIT, and Doolally's at Corinthian Club.

Internet- good speed, options. Or else my blog and fb participation would go for a toss.

Overall, quality of life is decent. Pollution is a problem, with too much construction.. road quality needs to improve. 

Economy and Coaches on a Train

 You may have heard of the Comparison of Economies using a Burger's Price in various countries.

I have a new model to compare the economies of Cities. It's called the number of Coaches on Suburban Trains. Economy Size is directly proportional to the number of coaches on your Suburban trains (metro or otherwise).

Mumbai has suburban trains (local) with 12 coaches. So does the Delhi Metro, on most lines. 

Pune has 3-coach metro trains. Maybe more on suburban lines to Lonavala.. 

Hyderabad, likewise.

Kolkata has very few coaches on its metro trains.. maybe more on Suburban local trains to Belur and so on.

If you can do the Math, you will get an idea of the local economy. You can factor in the number of passengers using these as an additional factor in the calculation.

This is how new theories are born.. like an apple falling on your head!

Change of Names

Places with changed names is the focus here.

Waltair is the old name for the city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Calicut is the old name for Kozhikode.

Trivandrum is the old name for Thiruvananthapuram.

Chennai is the new Madras, Puducherry is the new Pondicherry and Mumbai is the new name for Bombay.

Bangalore has turned into Bengaluru (and I believe, Gulbarga into Kalburgi), Calcutta into Kolkata.

Pune is what we call the old Poona now.

Roads have also been renamed to get a nationalistic flavour instead of the British-Raj one, like the name given to Warden Road. Bhulabhai Desai Rd is the new name. The American Cnsulate where I got my student visa used to be located on this road in Mumbai (Bombay). 

Cities

Simpli-city.

Elasti-city.

Electri-city.

Auda-city.

Tena-city.

Univer-sity.

Fero-city.

Toxi-city.

Feli-city.

Velo-city.

Bhopal- A City Review

After Nagpur, this is the first clean city I have come across in our country. My expectations are minimal. Wide roads without choking traffic, without heaps of garbage all over. Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, do not stand up to scrutiny on these counts. Bhopal does.

I was there on invitation to talk to budding young entrepreneurs. CII was the do-gooder, and a bunch of young guys there have taken up the cause of mentoring people with ideas. People of diverse ages and experience were a part of the audience. Many were existing entrepreneurs-the mentors. One among whom was a former student of mine from IMT Nagpur.

Anyway, the talk went off fine, judging by reactions during and after. It was on marketing strategy. Both on the way and back, we drove along the (Upper) lake, and it reminded me of Tank Bund in Hyderabad.

There are a lot of things one can see around Bhopal too, and I am sure I will visit again. Bhojpur temple nearby and a prehistoric man site called Bhimbetka seem the most interesting. MP Tourism, incidentally, is one of the most pro-active in popularising their destinations. I should know, having been to about a dozen of them, including Marble Rocks, Bhedaghat, and Pench Tiger reserve in the last few years. They had a restaurant at Dodi, halfway between Indore and Bhopal as a rest stop, with clean toilets. With posters and free brochures for other destinations to visit in MP state.

Nagpur Revisited

I am a big fan of Nagpur for various reasons-professional and personal. I spent three good years there at what I consider one of the best business schools in India-IMT Nagpur among great students, staff and faculty. Its campus has a soothing effect on anyone who spends significant time there. We used to hear this from students, but also from visitors who came in for a few hours. The city also has a great charm. It is not overcrowded like most other cities.

So it was a great pleasure to visit again, and though I was not able to play Golf-one thing I try to do when there- I did many things joyful. Meeting friends of course being the prime one. Here is the pic to prove it. Colleagues Gadgil, Vijayakumar, Anantram and TK Chatterjee at hotel Tuli enjoying a lunch. It was also Vijayakumar's 61st birthday.

Also went to Bangalore to IFIM B School in e-city for my PhD student's final viva after that. She is my second student at VTU to have completed the doctorate. Nice feeling.

Pune Warriors

This is not about the short-lived IPL team supported by the ill-fated Sahara group whose chairman is going through bad times. This is about the everyday wars being fought by the Punekars on its roads, and so on.

Historically a culturally rich, progressive city, it retains (many) shades of it even today. But on one count, it falls short of expectations (to be fair, all Indian cities fall short here)- traffic and its management. Public transport needs huge improvement, because people seem to believe today (rightly) that a two-wheeler of your own is a must, if you want to get around and reach anywhere. Someone said that a city's public transport system is a mark of how civilised it is. I am beginning to agree.

Autorickshaws are expensive for daily commutes of any lengths. Parking is non-existent in most parts of town. A metro should have been built about 8-10 years ago, and there is no sign of it yet.

There are a lot of pluses in Pune, but lots of civic facilities seem on the verge of a breakdown. Urgent repairs needed, and mostly within municipal limits- pun intended. Let's hope Pune is not "Bangalored" in its road conditions.