Tag Archives: Nagpur

Adventure, Nostalgia

My Nostalgic trip to nagpur

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Last weekend, I had a chance to travel to Nagpur. This time, it was not for some work I had pending, but just to visit the place where I did my engineering from and relive those good days.

I will not go on about each and every thing about the trip, instead I will just list the places I visited and say what has changed about them

Priyadarshini College of Engineering

  1. There are now many different colleges in the same campus, mainly an MBA college, a polytechnic college, among others
  2. Some teachers have left, though I saw most of them on Saturday morning. They seem to have prospered and most come on cars instead of lunas/Puchs.
  3. Students are now from a slightly better class of society, some of them own cars.
  4. The number of buildings has gone up, though it doesn’t feel that cramped
  5. The row of tin-shedded buildings housing the small auditorium opposite the Administrative block has been demolished
  6. The nescafe shop next to the library has been demolished
  7. The row of road-side tea-stalls opposite the college gate has been replaced by a Cafe Coffee Day
  8. The IT block has lost its new feeling (when it was constructed) and looks shabbier now

Dharampeth

  1. Most of the shops are same, no major changes. Bula’s still stands
  2. There’s a new Haldiram building coming up
  3. Pyramid has been replaced by Brand Factory, though the inside of the store looks the same as before
  4. The custard/shake stall at the first left turn was not there both the days I went there
  5. Raskun(j) has closed down
  6. Yummy yum has been closed down/replaced by a newer restaurant
  7. Some good brands have opened up shop
  8. Corn Hub now has 2 outlets (In DP)
  9. The In & Out shop at Shanky PP now sells branded apparel.
Sadar/VCA/Poonam Chambers
  1. The VCA stadium now has a Subway outlet
  2. The CCD is mostly the same
  3. Both Liberty/Smruti theaters are the same (at least from outside)
  4. Tauby’s is still doing good business
  5. Restaurant Nanking is still there
  6. Poonam Chambers was mostly deserted, even on Saturday evening
  7. The video game parlour in the basement of Poonam chambers is much smaller and completely deserted; the games suck and have no place in 2012
  8. The PC cafe coffee day is still there, though there’re much less people

Sitaburdi

  1. Burdi is as (if not more) crowded than before
  2. There’s a new mall in Burdi, but does not compare to metropolitan city malls; mostly consists of Big Bazaar and the crowd is terrible
  3. Landmark (with Westside and Big bazaar) still exists.
  4. The jewellery store which opened up in place of Barista was closed
  5. Pape Juice corner was closed both the days I went there.
  6. There was a new Haldiram joint opening up
  7. Paragon Traders still exists
  8. 10 Downing street still exists; though the Pasta I ordered was very-very spicy; leading me to suspect that it was Saoji pasta.

Overall/Misc

  1. Telangkhedi lake seems deserted
  2. The row of chinese/street food stalls opposite the lake have been replaced by swanky (by Nagpur standards) cafes
  3. The lake is definitely dirtier, with filth floating around
  4. The house where I used to stay has gone from a single floor shabby structure to a 3 floor swanky (again, by Nagpur standards) house
  5. The Hot chips next to PP’s garage pub has been closed
  6. PP’s garage pub still exists
  7. Maitrayi CCD still exists, is doing good business
  8. There are a lot more Hot Chips counters around the city
  9. The city is still more 2-wheeler friendly than 4-wheelers
  10. Fuel rates have gone up significantly, auto-wallahs charge too much
  11. The Airport, which underwent a spurt of development/expansion after I left is now stagnant, not much more has been done. There were birds flying around inside the airport
  12. The restaurants/pubs are still much cheaper than the ones in metropolitan cities
  13. Some women still wear a weird robe over their clothes to protect themselves from the Sun.
  14. The Sardarji opposite T-Point hostel is still serving meals to students. Gary (his son) seems to have grown a regular beard and wears a turban now.
  15. The movie theaters still show English movies dubbed into Hindi. The wrath of the titans was Mahayudhh – 2

Finally, the heat was unbearable, even in March. The temperature crosses 40 degrees by noon and stays that way till 6PM. The sun is very very hot and I got blisters on my hand riding a bike around in the heat; as well as a headache which lasted till the next day.
While leaving, I asked myself this question “Would I be able to live in Nagpur if I got a job offer here?”; after all, I would be able to afford a much higher standard of living even with the same Salary.
Well the answer is “NO”. Nagpur as a city is nothing spectacular. What made it worth living was the presence of wonderful friends an the student lifestyle we used to lead.
Without them, it is not as much fun.

Rant

The amazing traffic of Nagpur..

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I heard that there was some information about the traffic sense of the people of Nagpur circulating around the people of Chandigarh and I thought it necessary to dispel the rumours. I am from Chandigarh and have never seen better roads or driving sense anywhere else in India. Anyways, getting back to the people of Nagpur, I would certainly say that they have great driving sense. But it is a little bit different than the rest of the country. I have tabulated the traffic rules modified especially for the high I.Q. people of Nagpur in the following points:-

  1. Remove any silencers/mufflers from your bikes/cars.
  2. If you are driving slow, drive on the rightmost lane so that people can overtake you from the left.
  3. If you are driving on the wrong side of the road, instead of driving by the side, drive straight through the middle. If it is dark, make sure you do not switch on your headlight.
  4. If you want to turn left, turn the right blinkers ON, start turning right and at the last moment change your mind and turn left thus fooling the ones behind you.
  5. To save your brake shoes from wear, don’t brake at all at a trafic signal. Use the cushioning effect of the vehicle already standing at the signal to stop you. If you are on the vehicle which has been bumped into, utter a few obsenities in Marathi and then ignore the incident as a daily occurence.
  6. While crossing the road, stand by the side of the road till you see some traffic. Wait till the vehicle is a few meters from you and then start crossing the road at a run.
  7. If you are female, disregard everything around you and start crossing the road without straying your eyes from your destination on the opposite side of the road. If you are attentive enough to hear the screeching of vehicles coming to a stop because of you, give them a look as if they deserve death.
  8. If you have already crossed the road, turn back at the last moment so that at least one of the vehicles(only 2-wheelers) hits you head-on. In the unfortunate incident incident that the driver survives, start shouting about how it was the driver’s fault and allow the surrounding people to beat him into a pulp and break his bike. Also ask for compensation.
  9. If you see a poor canine somewhere on the road, try to run over him to liberate him from his painful suffering life.
  10. If you are driving along a road and suddenly see something of interest, brake immediately in the middle of the road. If someone bangs into you from behind, lay all the blame on him.
  11. If you feel the need to park somewhere, disregard the parking places and park in the middle of the road in a way which would cause the maximum traffic disruption.
  12. If you are a pedestrian, throw stones and pebbles at the people driving by.
  13. If some blows his horns at you from behind indicating that he wants to overtake you, move a little to the left to let him come to par with you and then suddenly start moving right slamming into him, testing his reflexes.
  14. If you are on your vehicle, stationary at the side of the road and want to start moving, throw your vehicle in high gear and drive perpendicular to the road swerving widely so as to go as far as the other side of the road before coming back into your own lane.
  15. If you are on a cycle, instead of driving straight, drive in a manner so as to make a figure S on the road touching all the lanes.
  16. If more than one bikes are driving along, drive in echelon formation taking up the whole width of the road and refuse to let people overtake you.
  17. If you want to prove that you are a true Nagpurian, as soon as you pass by some happening place, throw your bike in high gear, roaring past all others, swerving your bike left and right and then brake suddenly burning rubber on the road.