Jan 8 - Getting Settled in Pune, India (Part 2)
We started working at NavGurukul and observed some classes. Surprisingly, everyone spoke English pretty well. The day before, people only spoke Hindi probably because Rishika spoke Hindi well. We planned to move but had difficulty getting Ubers to come; we would wait 15-20 min to be paired with a driver to no avail. In addition, Isa needed to go the hospital so we figured it would be best to wait for everyone.
Hunger got the best of my fears of food poisoning so I ate with the students. I had some rice, chapati, and cabbage with potatoes.
Then we had a call with Prachi and decided on projects. Surprisingly Isa and Vidya came back from the hospital in time to catch the end of the call.
After the call we headed back to the apartment to start moving. As we were happily chatting a way, some cement (?) splattered down on us from a construction site we passed. Welcome to India. While the cement got all over our hairs and clothes, it luckily came out with some water and rubbing.
We tried calling an Uber to move for the third time that day, but either couldn’t be matched with drivers or drivers canceled. We tried calling Ubers multiple times, tried calling taxi drivers we previously rode with, reached out to contacts from NavGurukul but to no avail. Finally we got matched with a driver on Ola and we did everything we could to not lose this driver. We called him to make sure he didn’t get lost. When he got lost by making a wrong turn, Vidya and I ran to meet him in person and bring him over. Initially we were planning to get two Ubers to fit all of our luggage and the four of us. However, we decided it would be easier to ask this driver to make two trips instead since it was so difficult to get a driver.
Vidya and Rishika went first while Isa and I waited at the apartment. For the first time since arriving, I started noticing and appreciating the little details because things felt like they were finally settling down. As we waited, I noticed that the neighborhood around NavGurukul isn’t that poor. While I saw a lady doing back-breaking work to throw a log and break into pieces, her neighbor owned three cars that he took good care of. He covered the cars with cloth and his house had ornate gates. Thinking about it, the apartment isn’t too bad – relatively new and the area seems pretty safe. But the lack of guidance from locals on our first day pushed us to seek certainty and comfort. If it was furnished and if we had more support from the host, we likely would have stayed. Also, while we were waiting, a truck with a big cylindrical tank pulled up to the apartment to deliver water – very interesting, I didn’t know that this was their water infrastructure.
The Airbnb was much larger than the apartment, similar to the size of Chirag’s place. I’m surprised to find such large apartments in a city, but seems like real state isn’t too much of an issue here. People just build wherever they want, resulting in a sprawling city. The Airbnb was also cleaner than the other place, though it was still pretty dusty by American standards. I sorta adjusted my cleanliness standards to accept some of the conditions here.
Vidya and I went walking in the streets for the first time. It was pretty scary – even though motor vehicles often honk when they pass you, the honk of a motorcycle sounds the same as a honk from a truck. Perhaps it would be safer to walk opposing traffic to see the vehicles coming. Also crossing the street took a lot of willpower, even for a New Yorker like me. We passed a small grocery store and a pharmacy before acquiring food at a small brick and mortar restaurant. It seemed like a casual fast food place, though not quite at the level of street food.
Though we walked into a non-veg (mostly meat) restaurant, they handed us the menu of the Indo-Chinese place next door since we asked for veg options. Since they took our money at the cash register of the non-veg place, they are probably owned by the same people. Surprisingly, the veg noodles were more expensive than the chicken noodles despite not having too many vegetables.
While we were waiting, we watched the making of paratha. His technique was to squash and roll out a dough ball covered in oil, stretch it out, fold it up accordion-style and roll it up at the same time.
The food itself came in interesting packaging – an insulating bag rather than the typical plastic containers we are used to. The noodles were rather spicy, which I did not expect since the noodles from Chirag’s place weren’t spicy at all. That was a lot of spice in one day. Vidya comforted me that the heat will go away eventually, which turned out to be true. Fortunately, I also didn’t get sick from eating the noodles.
After arriving at the Airbnb, I finally started feeling settled.
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