The "Change"

This is the first memory that I have of Poona. Just out of school and straight into Law School, I was a teen with a lot of spunk. After two days in the city, I had walked into the nearest post office (the Deccan one) and bought some stamps. I gave the lady 50 rupees and she had to return 44 and after rambling and ranting for quite a while, she looked at me fiercely spouting these exact words, “sutta ahe?” Now all North-Indians know that a sutta means a cigarette and I was obviously oblivious of the fact that the word has a completely different connotation in Marathi, it meant “change”. I was shell-shocked. Why would a government employee offer me cigarettes instead of change? I told her “I don’t smoke” and she got even more agitated and waved the 50-rupee note at me and shouted “sutta ahe?” She was clearly having a horrible day and I wasn’t exactly soothing it out for her. I look back at that day and laugh my guts out. Quite literally…

Poona for me and comrades has been the time of our lives and nothing in the world can change that. The slosh of the puddles, the irritatingly crater rocked roads, the untimely rains, the 4 months of constant monsoon, the pollution, the clubs, the college, the “katta”… it’ll take a lifetime to cover up for all the mischief. About time as well :-)