Hopping on in Pune!
William Shakespeare has said ‘What is the city but the people?’ A city is known by its people. We tend to identify and map a city’s culture on the behavior and attitude of its denizens. The other day I was in Pune to give a presentation on a new statute for prevention of sexual harassment. The venue for the event was a 5 star hotel close to the airport. After landing in the city, the first thought was to hire a radio taxi, as we do in other cities. However, very soon I realized that there were none that were available. There was a single counter for cabs and that too informed me that I would need to wait for 15 minutes. I had the option to move to the prepaid taxi counter, but the long queue deterred me. I also observed that it moved slowly and by the time the man at the cab counter called me, I would have still been in the queue. Now that I had the cab I took the receipt and stepped out in the scorching April heat. With a suit it felt hotter once I got in the cab. I