City Life

Pune City is home to 3.5 million Indians. It is a major intellectual hub of India and is considered to be very prosperous and more progressive than most other cities. There are many places to shop, eat, see movies, get coffee, and just hang out. I live in the heart of it all. Our apartment is right off the main shopping strip, called Laxmi Road, where they sell everything from blankets to watches to clothes to expensive jewelry. If we need anything, there is always a place nearby, which is nice. What isn't that nice is the constant noise and traffic. Some of the other students live in more residential areas that are much quieter. And my poor host brothers (6 and 2) don't really have anywhere to play. But my friends are always coming to Laxmi Road to shop or walk around, and it is really convenient to be able to walk right home afterward. And we live close enough to walk to school too. Saving money on rickshaws!

Many people assume because I am in the "third world" that there is poverty everywhere. To some extent, that is definitely not true. Many parts of the city are very well-developed. For example, Fergusson College campus, where I attend classes, is absolutely beautiful. 

One thing I really love about this city is all of the trees and greenery. I have never seen a city with so many trees integrated into its main streets. I feel like I am walking beneath a forest canopy a lot of the time despite the cars, motorcycles, and strip malls.

Unfortunately, there is some validity to the assumptions people make about India and the prevalence of poverty. Currently, 40% of the population of Pune live in slums (only slightly better than the 50% that live in slums in Mumbai). It is really hard to swallow this figure, although I am not exposed to the majority of it. At least not yet, I haven't been. There are plenty of beggars always and people sleeping on the streets, and over 40,000 stray dogs, but the big slums are in a different part of the city that I don't encounter normally. However, there is some that I see every day on my walk to and from school. There is a small slum next to the bridge I cross. Sometimes the smell is unbearable passing by. Seeing how the people have to bathe, use the bathroom, dress, and live so exposed and out in the open is truly heart-breaking. It humbles me every day to see these terrible conditions that other human beings are living in. We will be visiting bigger slums in Pune and in Mumbai very soon, which will, unfortunately, be much much worse.

Overall, Pune is a very vibrant, dynamic city that is already teaching me so much about Indian culture, globalization, wealth and poverty, government policy, the environment, and all sorts of other things, even after just two weeks living here. The idea of spending a semester getting to know this beautiful city leaves me feeling more excited every day!