A little over a year ago, I wrote Bengaluru Blues, Pedal Truths, and the Longing for Lost Cities. There was my Isuzu V-Cross, my dear bull, an electric bicycle, and quite a lot of frustration with Bengaluru’s roads. There was affection for the city too, though the traffic did its best to test that affection.

Well, there is an update. We moved to Pune in August!

My wife was transferred in the public interest. The move was also a choice we made with a longer view of life - some stability, some peace, and being closer to family.

Professionally, it was a difficult call. Leaving IBM after making contributions I valued, and having a vision for the work ahead, was not easy. My field is hardware and semiconductors, so leaving Bengaluru carried its own uncertainty. I did my research and found reasons for hope. The hope is still there.

The move and the end of my IBM chapter did not happen together. I continued serving my notice period from Pune, travelling to Bengaluru when needed for the final closure.

There is still a job search in the background. But there is rather more to life here than that.

Hyderabad Had a Longer Innings

My first Hyderabad stay was only the beginning of that relationship.

In A Traveler in Me - The Inception, I wrote about three months in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, a stay that ended in January 2014. I was around Paradise first, then moved to Abids, attending ACE Engineering Academy to study Computer Science again.

And I was cycling. Quite a lot!

In that post, I recorded riding around 35 kilometres a day for about a month. There were clean roads and heavy traffic, and I was rather amused at how often my bicycle got past the SUVs. Apparently, this bicycle-versus-SUV business started well before my Bengaluru e-cycle.

There was Hussain Sagar, wandering on foot and on the city buses, friends from different states, biriyani at Paradise or Bawarchi, and those morning idli-chutney breakfasts. Food, studies, exploration, fitness… I was very fond of that combination.

But Hyderabad came back into my life for a much longer innings. I joined DRDO, met the woman who would become my wife, and found my research aspirations coming alive again. Eventually, that led me to IIT Hyderabad in 2018.

I enjoyed the Old City too, frustrations and all. Later, I moved to Sangareddy, near IITH. Life there was more peaceful and a lot of fun, while the IIT work kept it quite hectic. Both things were true at the same time.

My first-year account from 2018 gives some idea of that workload: seven advanced courses in eleven months. Computer architecture was a natural interest, but there were also subjects that were new to me, assignments that took a great deal of work, and the effort of finding a research direction.

I enjoyed the learning. I also struggled with parts of it. In that old post, I was quite open about not feeling that my grades reflected what I had learned. It was a busy, imperfect, absorbing period of life.

So Hyderabad, for me, is much more than an affectionate memory of a few months of cycling and biriyani. There was work, a relationship, research, and the move towards a PhD. Sangareddy belongs in that story too, with its peace alongside the demands of IIT life.

Kanpur, and What Came After

There was also a short spell at IIT Kanpur, about four or five months. The food at IITK, life at Hall VIII, and the progress in research made it a particularly enjoyable time. My research interests felt properly re-ignited, and I was making meaningful progress.

Then came a very different set of demands.

My father, Nana, suffered a stroke and was in the ICU. Rehabilitation followed. COVID arrived around that period too, adding its own difficulties to an already difficult time.

I have written about parts of those years in my tribute to Nana. There was pain, financial difficulty, the search for work, and family responsibilities that could not be put aside. Eventually, I had to leave my PhD programme to rebalance family needs and finances.

That was a difficult thing to give up, especially after the effort of getting back into research and beginning to make progress. It belongs in the story just as much as the enjoyable campus life.

A new job eventually took me to Bengaluru. Those years also brought the birth of our first daughter, Divisha, in June 2021. There was a great deal of joy in that, alongside everything else that needed attention.

It would leave too much out to describe this as a series of enjoyable stays in different cities. Research aspirations, parenthood, illness in the family, money, and work were all part of how life moved from one place to another. Some choices were welcome. Others involved giving up something important.

That is part of what Bengaluru means to me too. Beyond the traffic and the cycling stories, it was where I took up work after a difficult period and continued with family life. Leaving it was never going to be just a matter of choosing another city with better roads.

I am looking at Pune with all of that behind me. The desire for stability and peace has quite a history.

A World Within Pune

On the personal front, Nanded City feels like a world in itself, somewhat separate from the Pune outside. I am enjoying it.

I also came with very high expectations. Those have needed some adjustment.

Illustration: the appeal of a greener planned township, with memories of city traffic.

A planned township sounds reassuring, especially after all that I had written about Bengaluru. But driving indiscipline exists inside a planned township too. The cycling paths are inconsistent. Planning a place and living in it are different experiences, and the difference becomes apparent in these ordinary things.

The cycle, apparently, still has matters to negotiate…

Outside the township, my experience of the driving culture has been quite disappointing, across both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Riders without helmets, traffic rules treated casually, and so little apparent concern for safety. After Bengaluru, I had hoped for something better on that front.

I do find the roads somewhat better, and the traffic less intense than the Bengaluru horror shows I was used to. But a better road does not automatically come with better behaviour on it.

Nor would it be fair to remember Bengaluru only through its traffic. Even in that earlier post, between the road rage and the potholes, I had written about small moments of kindness and the joy of cycling.

I wanted those things there too. A little space, a decent ride, an outing that could simply be enjoyed.

Madhe Ghat, With a Second Attempt

Having the Western Ghats roughly half an hour away feels like a dream come true.

I have been to Sinhagad multiple times.

Clouds over the Sinhagad hills. View larger.

August also brought some great fun in the Western Ghats, including the outings towards Madhe Ghat.

On one trip, with the monsoon in full swing, the poor roads made me turn back midway. The destination remained unfinished, but it was still a fantastic day out.

There was another attempt, this time in the Isuzu V-Cross, to deal with the road challenges. That turned into another enjoyable outing. After so much writing about the bull and Bengaluru’s roads, it is good to have something rather more enjoyable to report about our trips!

Illustrative scene: a pickup beside a monsoon-green ghat road.

The beauty of the Western Ghats during the monsoon is something else. So much greenery, so many little waterfalls coming down the hills… and then some kande pakode, onion pakodas, to go with the outing.

Illustrative scene: chai, pakodas, and monsoon hills.

These trips also bring an older journey into the picture. In August 2017, four of us set out on two bikes towards Jeerango in the Eastern Ghats. The plan included the Buddhist monastery and Khasada waterfall. What followed was rather different: a blocked route, a detour to Gandahati waterfall, and then arriving at the wrong Jiranga while still looking for the monastery.

We did eventually reach the intended Jeerango, but Khasada had to be left out. The account I wrote then has quite a lot of tiredness, confusion, and enjoyment in it. I had expected a much earlier return, and the day had other ideas.

So, an outing that does not go entirely to plan is hardly a new development in my travel history. The Madhe Ghat turnback belongs to its own day, but the pleasure of the hills, even when the intended destination remains unfinished, is familiar.

Back then there were the Eastern Ghats, friends, bikes, and a long-awaited ride, with photography and exploration very much part of the plan. Now there are the Western Ghats nearby and outings with the Isuzu.

That part of the move has been lovely.

The enjoyable drives and the unfinished job search are both part of life here. One does not cancel the other.

A Reset, With Work Still to Do

These months have been a great reset. I have been focusing on fitness, the children, and our family’s wellbeing.

There are projects too. I am working on a custom home theatre system, choosing speakers and amplifiers, and figuring out how to reuse equipment I already have. This is the sort of thing I enjoy - understanding the pieces, seeing what can work together, and building something of my own.

Then there is technical content creation. I have thought about it multiple times, especially YouTube videos, but I haven’t started. I need to work on that more seriously.

There, at least, a change of city has not done the work for me. The videos still need to be made. He he…

I am enjoying Nanded City, adjusting my expectations, spending attention on family and fitness, and getting out towards the hills. There are things to sort out, and ideas that still need to become actual work.

All of this is happening together.

Pune has not become a perfect city just because I moved here, and I have not become a perfectly organised person either. But there is a lot here that I am enjoying, and quite a bit that I want to do.

Thank you for reading. Perhaps the next update will include some progress on the home theatre, or finally one of those videos. For now, there have at least been a few good outings with the bull!

Warm regards,

Bhargav Achary

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