I should have wrapped the Pune series earlier. I was waiting for this one to finish so I could talk about other topics, but sadly, I couldn’t do both.

I’ll wrap up the remaining three issues of the Pune series in the next five days and will get back to publishing our routine.

So, Day 3:

I could have met so much more people, but for some reason, I felt I should meet only the ones I REALLYYY wanted to meet during the trip. I’m glad I met everyone I wanted to meet, unlike Bangalore, where I couldn’t meet Meena.

Bharadwaj

Bharadwaj and I are friends from college. We played a lot of professional cricket together—our memory lane goes long back to many matches, wins, and moments.

He has a job in Pune now and visits Hyderabad almost every two months. We keep meeting in Hyderabad, but I always used to say, “One day I’ll come to Pune and we will chill.”

And there I was, in Pune.

We met early in the day—around 7 am. I was hungry and craving Misal Slice since yesterday.

I didn’t even give him a choice. I told him we were going to a Misal place, googled for good breakfast places around me, and went to the nearest one.

We ordered Misal Pav this time.

The taste wasn’t as foodgasmic as before, but it was good. We enjoyed it.

But we were still hungry, so we drove to Anna’s maggie point in KP. I don’t know if this is popular, but Maggie was pretty good. You should try it if you’re in Pune.

While Anna was preparing one of the tastiest maggies I ever had, Bharadwaj and I were talking about my freelance biz, his job, his brother, things at home, updates from Hyderabad Cricket, a few common friends, temples, and a lot more stuff.

Moment of the day:We were speaking in Telugu, and Anna said he’s from Telugu states too. It’s nice how I find Telugu people everywhere I travel. Didn’t speak to him much—asked him where he is from and how long it has been in Pune.

We were back at the hostel by 10 am and then he left.

Loneliness on Solo Trips

When I think about it, I don’t really have a reason to get lonely on Day 3. I met good people in the first two days, roamed around like crazy, tried new food, and met my friend on the morning of Day 3.

If there was anything, I should enjoy the solitude I finally got after 2.5 days.

But that was not the case.

Soon after Bharadwaj left, I freshened up and was off to Starbucks.

I always wanted to explore Starbucks in Hyderabad, but it’s too far from my place. Thus I never took it seriously. But the KP branch looked grand and super cool from the outside—I couldn’t resist exploring.

So I walked in: with no idea about what they serve and what I should order.

I asked the women at the counter, “I’m new here. I don’t know what’s good, can you suggest something?”

She asked if I wanted something cold or hot. Cold, I said.

She gave me a sample of the new cold coffee they recently added to their menu. I liked it, but I knew she was trying to get more sales on this new coffee. So I asked her if I can try anything else, and she gave me two more samples.

I liked the Hazelnut flavour one, so I ordered it.

I spent three hours at Starbucks. Got some client work done (and this is where the trouble began.)

Now I finished everything I was supposed to finish. What do I do next?

Small Flashback: I didn’t sleep well the last two days and had nightmares early in the morning, so the vibe was a little off.

By the time I finished my work, I was already in distress. I don’t usually return to the hostel until late at night because I am always excited to roam around. But there are always exceptions.

I was in the mood for nothing and had no patience to calm myself and explore the places around me. It’s strange because I am usually patient (very very patient.)

It is what it is, I thought, and I walked back to the hostel.

I slept for an hour, and it felt worse after I woke up. I just sat on my bed for two hours doing nothing and infuriated about doing nothing.

I had the same feeling when I was in Coorg. I want to do something, I want to call people and ask them to meet, but you don’t really have anyone to meet instantly. The fact that it’s a foreign city makes it even harder.

Good news is I learned my lesson in Coorg.

Instead of waiting for someone to come say hi, and make my day better, I decided to just go out of the room first.

So I was out and decided to walk, just walk—no plan, no expectations, no urge to do something good. I’ll just walk. If something interests me, I’ll go checkout. It can be good or bad. Doesn’t matter.

This happened:

• Honestly, walking around in the rain with an umbrella was beautiful.

• I went to an ice cream place and had one of the worst ice creams of my life—I was surprised at how okay I was with this. I had a good conversation with the owner, nevertheless.

• I noticed a comic store, and the next second, I was in it. I talked to the sales guy about what they have and what products are sold the most. Apparently, Marvel and DC superheroes are popular among the kids. I couldn’t take pictures inside the store, but seeing Marvel and Naruto toys made me happy. I thought Starbucks was expensive. Then I saw the price tags of these toys.

• Messaged The Gang, telling them what I did in the last two days.

• I kept walking for over four kilometres. I crossed KP to a point where there was nothing but some construction area. I had dinner with a friend at Kharadi, so I booked an auto when I had nothing more to explore on the street.

I wanted to embrace randomness, which is unlike me, but I think I did a good job. Happy that I didn’t let the bad mood have control and took some action to feel better about myself. (Yes, that’s me praising myself. This is rare too.)

Nidhi Poddar

When I was in Coorg in May, I met Nidhi, who was travelling to Mysore-Coorg-Mangalore with her husband. Remember when I wrote this issue on Coorg? Nidhi was there too.

Nidhi lives in Pune, and Vikas, her husband, recently moved to Hyderabad. I was supposed to meet them in Hyderabad before Coorg, but I couldn’t pay a visit as I had a friend’s birthday on the same day.

Vikas is still in Hyderabad. I didn’t meet him after Coorg. I’ll catch up with him soon.

Back to the story: Nidhi’s office is in Kharadi, and she asked if I could make it to the Irani Café. I said okay, and I took an auto after my four-kilometre walk.

We spent an hour at the café, talking about Coorg, what happened after they left, how’s life in Pune-Hyderabad, their love story, treks, and work.

Aaaaaaaaaand, I had Bun-Maska again 😋

I liked Irani Café. Nidhi says it’s one of the newer branches. Wish I could have gone to the first one.

Kharadi was good too. It’s basically the corporate area with all the offices and tall buildings. Nidhi’s office was ten minutes from Irani Café, so we walked back while she showed me which building had what office.

After my goodbyes to Nidhi, I booked my ride back to the hostel.

And just like that,
Day 3, Signing off.