Crow's Delight in Pune

Boks Glory in Paris

    The Proteas always planned to have two days off in Pune after the travel day on Saturday but, with many of the squad not getting much sleep before breakfast after watching the Springboks in Paris in the early hours of Sunday morning, the extra day of rest will be much appreciated.

    As it was this morning in the Hotel Solitaire when I was woken up by the duty manager after three hours sleep to tell me that I was in danger of missing breakfast. Given that this is the first hotel with an actual dining room, I staggered downstairs for tremendous, mildly curried pea and potato chapati roll. And then went back to sleep until 1:00pm.

    The scale of the infrastructural development taking place in most Indian cities is staggering, as is the ensuing chaos on the already over-crowded roads. In Mumbai, Chennai and now Pune, vast Metro lines are being built to ease the traffic congestion created by the ever-expanding number of car owners. Until they are built, the congestion will remain suffocating.

    And yet the ‘old India’ remains, co-existing with the parts of the country surging into the ‘first world’. The dairy farmer with his ten buffalo and cows, five of each, calling them from their small patch of grass and litter between the building sites for milking at the end of the afternoon.

    The traditional medicine man, operating his practise from the broken-down van in which he also lives, with a variety of home-made powders and potions stored in re-used bottles and tubs, all available on the Paytm App, by which you will have gathered by now, I am fascinated. How to facilitate the world’s largest micro-economy, lesson one: Enable everyone to charge anyone for anything, however small, for a fraction of Rupee per transaction. The paw-paw lady, the fisherman and now the healer.

    The street-food on which I survived happily and healthily 25 years ago has now been taken to micro food-courts with neon lights and plastic chairs to sit on. Behind the bright counters, out of sight, the food is cooked in the same way it always was. It is amusing how easily we deceive ourselves. The shawarma from a cart with stray dogs lurking for an accidental scrap changes from ‘risk’ to ‘gourmet’ if there is a screen between the chef and the consumer. Mine was delicious tonight.

    As I write this England have crashed to 92-7 in pursuit of India’s 229-9 and the thinnest sliver of hope for a title defence has gone. Not just that, but confirmation that only the top seven teams on the final league table will qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy, along with hosts Pakistan, means that England will have to win their remaining three matches to make sure they are there. Although…will India really play in Pakistan? Will that tournament even go ahead?  

    Finally, a quick glance at what $45 can buy you for a night in India, if you know where to look. Or know someone who knows where to look for you. The Hotel Solitaire doesn’t promise much from the outside, and it’s a little chaotic inside, but once you’re settled it’s budget-deluxe.