Returning home in a rickshaw this morning, I was saddened by the run down, higgeldypiggeldy piggeldy mess my hometown has become.

I was born in Poona in the days when it was known as Poona. The  days when it was a gracious city , a centre of learning and culture , known for its students its salubrious climate and its yummy traditional food. Sometime in the last fifty years it became Pune and sometime in the last ten years it has become a mess.

I’m down here with my parents and visiting with my daughter and her daughter which makes it a special time for us all to have four generations  down the female line together. To celebrate this  occasion, we are planning to have an early Christmas dinner with roast chicken and potato salad . We’ve already celebrated with Shrikhand and Puri . But that was yesterday.

This is not the first time I’ve come with my grandchild but this is the first time with a grand daughter and somehow I feel this fleeting meeting will be enough for some family lore and tradition to rub off on her.

Isn’t it strange that as children we want to run as far away as we can from our traditions and our mothers and don’t want to become like them but it is only when we become mothers ourselves that we think of our mothers and traditions and want the next generation to at least be acquainted with them if not actually follow them.

So today I went to meet another cousin who has recently become a grand father and on the way home I looked sadly at the roads that I can no longer recognise.

My sleepy old city has become one crazy mess: Cycles have been replaced by two wheelers – scooters and motor bikes, old buildings ready to fall down share walls with ugly new structures that look equally shabby; roads that were once big and spacious are now tiny little alleys with oversized shops and street vendors.

Having just returned from Singapore, I can’t help but feel sad at the way in which we develop our old cities- unplanned and without regard for our “heritage  structures”. Old trees are cut down, old houses ripped apart and instead of improving the infrastructure, things have become much worse.

From a Rickshaw in Pune

in a Rickshaw in Pune

Will our cities ever change for the better ? Or will they continue to deteriorate into unlivable spaces?

Let’s hope 2016 brings more enlightened municipal governance so that “improvements ” are really improvements and not a descent into chaos and despair.

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A strange phenomenon 

While  I was away in Singapore,  I found the time to blog everyday. I find this strange because there I was doing housework and baby care and sight seeing as well. Here back in my own environment with my regular crew to help, I just don’t seem to find the time to write!

Does this happen to you as well?

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Finally I found the link to Write Tribe’s #MondayMusings and am linking this post to Parul’s blog . Do visit this blog for interesting views on a Monday Morning!