By: Harshad Oak
As per construction rules in cities, all buildings need a certain parking capacity to be approved by the corporation. Although even these standards seem inadequate to handle the traffic mess in Pune, builders have found a way to make it appear as if they are conforming to the law without doing anything of that sort. They just convert the parking potential of the public road into a private parking facility.
One of the most striking things about Indian culture is that we rarely resist. For hundreds of years we have been ruled by the Mughals and the British, but apart from the independence struggle early in the last century and in 1857, there’s not much record of resistance from the masses. A few rulers did resist foreign rule but those weren’t people’s movements.
A few days back I heard that the PYC Gymkhana located in the Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune has stopped serving alcohol. This came as a pleasant surprise and compeltely against recent trends in Indian cities.
Pune Youth Club (PYC) Hindu Gymkhana was formed in 1934 and for over 70 years has been a sports organization. PYC was once about cricket, badminton, table tennis and tennis.
One of the top topics for discussion in Pune today, is the new hill road that has been approved. The road will connect Paud Road and Senapati Bapat Road and is expected to ease traffic congestion in Pune city.
Encroachments on footpaths and by the roadside are so common that most of us barely notice them. We have to step around these vendors, be very inconvinienced by them and their customers and yet we choose to ignore them. We do not even hesitate while buying things from these very vendors that cause us so much trouble everyday. Why?
A clarification before I get into the subject: I am not against IITs and IIMs. They are wonderful institutions and I respect the handful who get into these institutions. The IITs and IIMs have not failed the nation. It’s the nation that has failed the core idea behind these institutions.
