Delhite Kirti Kapoor, a fourth-year LLB student from ILS Law College, Pune, has been living in the city for eight years now and has found it to be one of the best cities to live in. It has played a major role in her growth as a person.“This place has helped me discover myself and has played a big role in achieving my goals and ambitions,” she says.
According to her, one of the most appealing things about Pune is the pleasant weather that prevails almost throughout the year. “The weather here is just perfect. Unlike Delhi, where temperatures keep hovering around the extremes, in Pune one actually feels like stepping out of the home and experiencing life outdoors,” says Kapoor.
“The greenery here just adds to it and unlike Delhi, where one gets to see only concrete jungles, Pune does have some beautiful green spaces where one can feel at peace,” she adds.
She calls Pune a classic mix of the conventional and the contemporary. “It is about the present, the ‘now’. That said, people here also uphold their culture and live life to the fullest,” says Kapoor.
The best thing that she likes about Pune is that everyone here is bustling with energy, wanting to try something new every now and then. “They are the real risk takers who go about venturing around, keeping the lethargy aside. But, at the same time, there is no rush and everything is peaceful and organised,” she says.
Apart from that, she believes that since the city’s population mostly comprises youngsters, the mindset is young and progressive. “Youngsters are willing to step out of their comfort zone and do something different, but at the same time they keep up with the city’s history and culture,” she says.
After attending a series of classes throughout the week, Kapoor, just like any other student, looks forward to taking a break from her weekly hectic schedule. “Road trips to places surrounding Pune like Ali Baug, Lonavla and Mahabaleshwar are the best you can visit for a quick weekend getaway,” she says. “As these places are not more than 90 km away from the main city, one can never get too tired from driving. Besides, they do not burn a hole in your pocket,” she adds.
In spite of having so many things that one can quite easily fall in love with, this city does require a few transformations for its betterment on the whole. According to Kapoor, one of them is the unbearable traffic that refuses to get better. “People categorically refuse to obey traffic rules and end up causing unnecessary jams. Due to this, I’ve ended up getting late for college multiple times,” she says.
The second thing she dislikes about Pune is quite an unusual one. She is not fond of Maharashtrian food. “I am a typical Punjabi, mostly born and brought up in Delhi. So I enjoy having Punjabi food and I have a hard time trying to like the typical Maharashtrian cuisine,” she adds.
Even though for eight long years, Kapoor has learnt to appreciate and love everything that Pune has offered her for so far, sometimes, she feels that the city could take a step back in time. “I wish Pune could have wider roads, fewer people, cooler breeze and a laidback lifestyle like in the past,” she says.