Useful services in Pune (and beyond)

One of the harder things to adjust to here is not being able to use the internet to find shops, restaurants, services, etc.  For a country that's always in the news for its booming IT sector, the average Indian and average business here just plain doesn't use the internet.  I'm glad that hasn't translated to a doorstep piled high with YellowPage type directories.  Fortunately there is JustDial.  It doesn't have much in the way of reviews or detailed information about products and services, but is nontheless a vital resource.

Do you like having things delivered?  Then you would probably like India.  Using JustDial of course, I found a pet shop in my neighborhood.  I called to confirm that they had cat supplies (dog supplies are more common) and to get better details about where they are located (addresses aren't always that helpful here).  But instead of getting that information, they asked what I wanted and delivered it to my door within the hour.  The wine shop, the small local grocer, probably just about everybody will deliver.

Including just about any restaurant.  (Not the Hard Rock Cafe, no sir, they are too good for that.)  You may have difficulty taking advantage of this if you don't speak Marathi or Hindi though.  I've been told by more than one neighborhood restaurant that they don't take English orders, even though it seems like a list of food shouldn't be that hard.  YumKing to the rescue!  We love, love, love this service.  There are a fair number of Pune restaurants on the site and it's very easy to use.  It only shows you restaurants that deliver to your area, warns you if they aren't open at the moment, and delivery is free!  McDonald's has online ordering too, but that is more like a curse than a blessing.

We also love BigFlix, which is available in several cities throughout India.  It is pretty much just like NetFlix.  Major differences being:  the suggestion algorithm, if there is an algorithm at all, is not very sophisticated; there is some streaming, but not of English titles; they tried to emulate NetFlix I think, but the  second icon that looks like it will add a movie to the top of your queue, adds it to the bottom just like the normal 'add to queue' icon; I hear they have brick and mortar stores too; they hand deliver and pick up your movies the very next day.

It's evening in Pune

And it smells like rain.  It has only rained once, and very briefly at that, since I've been in India.  I expected it to be humid, but the humidity hasn't been above maybe 10% so far.  Probably a very good thing in this 100 degree weather.  Quite the change from Seattle, which is at 81% today.  My palms and fingertips haven't looked this old and papery and alien since taking Accutane.  But it's awful pleasant out right now and I am looking forward to the monsoon.

Miscellany

Boaz has recovered.  I thought I had escaped the infection and celebrated appropriately with a bottle of wine on Sunday.  Now I'm starting to feel crappy.  I've also been terrible about remembering to take pictures while wandering Pune, but I'll throw a few out to you while I spend some time resting.

Speaking of wine:  Alcohol is pretty expensive here.  The cheapest wines I can find are still over $5.  I've found a couple in that range that I like.  You can easily spend $30 on a domestic bottle of wine that is about on par with a $5 bottle at home.  I haven't found any reds I really like yet.  That's always a little trickier.  This system won't scale, but for the moment I take pictures of bottles I like or hate.

Symphonies of India

I really enjoyed sitting out on our hotel terrace in the evening, listening to the cacophony of horns, whooping sirens, utterly charming 'my car is backing up!' jingles, children laughing, music playing. It all sort of blended together, the symphony of India, I thought.

The house in Kumar City is usually quiet and the exceptions aren't pleasant. Most of our neighbors have dogs. Do the security guards do rounds at night? They get up to barking like mad at all hours. In the morning there are supersonic flybys, helicopters, whathaveyou (a lot of military establishments are in Pune, including the Indian Army's Southern Command HQ and the National Defense Academy). Pigeons freak out in the airshaft adjacent to the bathrooms. Their cooing (that is so not the right word) is loud and guttural, like they have been crossed with monkeys.

Squisito

We had dinner recently at Squisito, one of few restaurants here with Mexican food. It's an iffy proposition in India. Boaz has tried several other Mexican restaurants and wishes to return to none. The hotel in Magarpatta City had nachos on the room service menu. They were on the 'Do Not Order' list. It's kind of like somebody told them about Mexican food, but they haven't actually tasted it.

I think part of the problem is that they don't make the right kinds of cheese here. Squisito's nachos were drenched in gas station style cheese sauce, only redeemed by the delicious salsa.

The tacos were good. Boaz was impressed with the quality of the corn chips and tortillas. He found it perplexing that a country with myriad fried foods would struggle so much with this element, but his previous experiences were limp. Everything at Squisito was delightfully crunchy.

They also have an Italian menu, a common marriage here. I was impressed with the wine service, given that wine connoisseurship is only an emerging thing in India. They offered a taste, promptly refilled my glass only when it was down to less than 25% and never over-poured. American restaurants foul this up all the time.

An evening in KP

Koregaon Park is an older and very nice part of Pune. It is known for being the expat area, which is why I wasn't terribly inclined to live there when Mr. Boaz was looking for houses. I saw more white folks in an hour or two there than I have in all the rest of my time in Pune. But it was nearly impossible for me to judge from afar and as it turns out its, shall we say, Indian-ness is not at all overwhelmed by the relative concentration of foreigners.

As an older part of Pune, it doesn't have the same sort of planned development that we live in and around. The architecture is a little more interesting, trees a little more grown up. Here's a shot of a side street. The main streets are lined with shops, especially handicraft and gift emporiums.

The 'Hood, The House

Looking out from the cinema, this is the nearest major intersection several blocks from our home. The Big Cinema building isn’t much to look at, its most prominent features being a McDonalds and a KFC. The children you see on the curb are always here, begging. There are a few restaurants, ATMs, and small malls on the corners. Most of the streets leading away are filled with rows of smaller shops: Pharmacies, bottle shops (liquor), hardware stores, sweet shops, etc. You find nearly identical shops in every neighborhood.