"Pune's Rosy Winters" - a re-post

The temperature across India has dipped as much as the Government's credibility, and Pune has slipped into trademark balmy-coolness. I wrote this article a couple of years ago for Jet Lite's in-flight magazine (no doubt, the first readers of this piece enjoyed considerably similar but totally artificial weather).

Thought I'd pull it out of the archives, to give you something to do when you're munching on kanda-bhajji and sipping a "speshal". Here it is.

The long dark cool tiffin-times of our roohs

The long dark cool tiffin-times of our roohs

It's been four months of winter and each time the Freddie seems to finally begin defying gravity, it dips back down the next day. It makes the mornings (especially in the shade) shiver and the brass balls of the night look for cover. The days are fabulous, especially on Sundays, when the road has enough breathing space for a walk in the polite sunshine. This is the famed Pune climate which we have seen very little of in the last few years.

Many other parts of India have faced the brunt of this extended winter, but we in Pune have been a little lucky to have the temperature just about right. Perhaps, if the climate doom-sayers are to be believed, this is strange but final flourish. So in addition to cutting down your C-footprint, get out a little more and enjoy it while it lasts.

And finally

It struck me in the morning that in all of the few assorted years I have spent in Bombay, I couldn't remember a single time when May had gone entirely rainless. A few weak drizzles apart, this seemed to be the case this year. Until this night. With about 3 hours to go, it came down happy and strong.

Hopefully, things will only go up from here.