october in pune

19 Oct, 2025

It is Diwali in Pune, which means a few things.

Every other building - and I do mean that literally - is draped with colourful (mostly yellow) LED lights. Most of them hang off roofs like twinkling waterfalls. This is very pretty, however:
It is terribly LOUD. The lights unfortunately add to the chaos, it's too much visual pollution for the eyes, there is already so much going on. Pune is loud in the normal Indian city sense of the word. But over the last three days, it's become unbearable. There is so much more traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, as people are doing their Diwali shopping and going-outs.

This loudness is best exampled through the rickshaw ride I had this evening. My driver was playing Marathi music on his own personal speaker (it's like if a biker drove around blaring music on a JBL). How do I know this? Well, when it connected to his phone, I, and maybe four other people around us stopped at the traffic light heard, "YER BLUTOOTH DEWICE IS CONNECTED". Actually, it was quite precious to me, because he took out its charger from a little locked compartment above the dashboard (do you call it a dashboard in a rickshaw?) a little "glove compartment" (I'm sorry I don't know the proper nomenclature for rickshaws). He also had a sticker of the outline of India, coloured in with the Indian flag. He had another heart shaped one, also coloured in with the flag. ALL this just to say, he blasted his music through the streets, drowning out (exacerbating) the sounds of the city without a care in the world.

ADS. THE MARKETING. THE CAPTIALISM DREAM. It is so demoralising. All these things that we buy. All these billboards screaming at us about, "Experiencing Luxury" and "Let's Make India Greater!" I shit you not. I saw a billboard of a man in a red (MAGA) cap, the picture is cropped right above his nose so you can only see his eyes (he kind of looks like Penn Badgley to me) and it says that in white font. Let's Make India Greater! What is it advertising you may ask? BOUTIQUE OFFICE SPACES.
Firecrackers. And the hooligans that burst them. BZ's cats, of which there are three, were so frightened tonight. I find no joy in firecrackers. Except maybe on New Year's Eve. But even then, it doesn't seem worth it.

Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of Diwali so that's good news. Other things have been happening in my life but I won't go on. I always tell myself I'll make these entries short because who has the time to read and scroll and read and read. So boring. Yet here I am. And here you are too, if you are here. How are you? Are you bored. Well, I'm sorry, I didn't make you read this. That's on you Ummm. Fun fact for your trouble: female sharks can reproduce asexually. Good for them. Okay, see you later, I'm going to get some dessert! Whoohoo