EDIT: Updates at the bottom.
I come from a Defence family, and I have seen the length and breadth of India. I have seen all the metro cities of india.
I have set up base in Bangalore for the past 8 years and it is my home now.
I am writing this review after being forcibly transferred to Pune by my IT company as they do not have any good resources here. At least thats what I was told.
Pune is an amalgamation of villages in the guise of a city. The fact that close to a million people live here only makes things worse.
Corruption is rampant, traffic cops are just looking for the next bakra, bureaucracy rampant .
Recently, as corporates established bases here owing to the overcrowding of Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and other well established metros, the real estate rates skyrocketed. Gaonwallas then cashed in on the scene selling their farmlands to builders. Poor farmers suddenly flush with cash by selling their land, they have started tum tums, paan tapris and street corner hotels and the like.
*Unfortunately, you cannot buy manners and class with money.
After staying in this dump for almost a year now, I have to mention that the **people here are extremely lazy, and have really low expectations. Totally chalta hai attitude, unwashed, and rather rude. Not only are they lazy, but also really stupid.
Dhaba / cheap hotel wala on every corner charges Rs 30 for a warm 600ml pet bottle of coke because he can. and ppl simply accept it. Only a handful of business establishments here know how to treat customers
The roads are bad, people here have no traffic sense. every other day I see a motorcycles driven by kids snaking across the road, doing stunts. Adults are no better - turn first, indicator and honk later. Honk and brake for no reason. Stop in the middle of the road and ask for directions.
Infrastructure and facilities are really bad bad bad. Half the ATMs in town don’t work, I hear of kids drowning in swimming pools every other day, the roads are very dirty and dusty, the streetlights are switched off after 10 PM. what a place!
And I dont understand why these gaonwallas are doing tribal dance in the middle of the road every other day with loudspeakers blaring?
Whose shaadi is it? Why is there no dulha? Who is smashing beer bottles?
Lets see. what else. Public transportation is a joke. Very few buses going anywhere. Auto wallas charge anything they want, the meter is never down. You are forced to commute in those stinky dirty tumtums - 10 people squeezed in one!
The party scene sucks too. really ugly girls drinking beer and dancing like Jitendra. The DJ sucks too.
There is one word that I have learnt in Marathi that aptly describes this dump of a city. Its GHATI.
UPDATE:
I have recently returned back to bangalore. I guess there are a few things good about Pune as well. Although I was always very very busy, I hardly ever felt any work pressure there as things are rather laid back in Pune. No traffic jams, and no 2 hours+ on the road.
People care a little more there. If there is an accident, a crowd forms pretty quickly and someone or the other tries to help. Not that much in Bangalore.
Land lords in Pune are also a little easy going compared to the sharks in Bangalore.
Poona= Bangalore MINUS 5 years
Updated the rating by one star as Pune has improved quite a bit in the past few years. The police too are behaving very decently for the most part and do not grab collars and stuff as long as you don’t try to run away. But whatever you do, do not live too far from the city boundaries.
Thanks to the software industry, you have plenty of educated people from good backgrounds relocating here. They add to the vibrant culture of the place. The local people for the most part are kind, except for hinjewadi and the surrounding areas where people are somewhat belligerent.