A Tale of Two Cities

Mumbai

Pune

Vs.

 
        Recently I had a chance to visit Mumbai for my GRE. People around me might be aware of the fact that I detest Mumbai to some extent for being sultry, humid and overcrowded. But during this visit, I had a realization of some other notable aspects of Mumbai that you can never have in Pune. Some things that make Mumbai more of an attractive place to live than Pune. These are some of my observations along with some known facts about Mumbai and Pune.

Mumbai: Very humid, sweltering climate in almost all seasons
Pune: Pleasant climate... dry and cool air

Mumbai: Extremely crowded
Pune: Moderately crowded (can be seen as advantageous or otherwise)

Mumbai: 4 wheelers
Pune: proliferation of 2 wheelers

Mumbai: People follow lane discipline while driving (looks so cool)
Pune: What's a lane? :P

Mumbai: People speak Mumbaiya - a unique variation of Hindi
Pune: People insist on speaking Marathi... and only the Puneri version of it... which (according to them) is the purest form of Marathi.

Mumbai: Very helpful people
Pune: The old city often gives you some experiences of "ear-pleasing" conversations with native people.... sometimes even swear-words... and the Marathi ones... BEWARE

Mumbai: If you see a plate "Beware of the dog" outside houses, do beware of the dog.
Pune: Ignore such plates... they are just a threat to keep unwanted guests away. There may not even be a dog in the house. But you still should beware of the plate (paati) owner who may frown at you for ignoring the Paati.

Mumbai: People willingly help you to locate new addresses.

Pune: I often hear this story of how some guy asked for an address in some random house on a street in Kothrud and he was shown the directions by the woman "इथून थोडं बाहेर जा... खालच्या अंगाला वळा... तिथे या इमारतीचं गेट दिसेल... त्यावरची पाटी वाचा.. (येथे पत्ते विचारू नयेत.)"  :-|

Mumbai: People are courteous.

Pune: People write Puneri Paatya for deliberately insulting you. There is even a website for such Paatis. www.puneripatya.com.  Some of them we discussed in preceding points.

Mumbai: Local trains are the fastest way of traveling. These trains work at clockwork precision. You will have another train after exactly 3 minutes if you miss one. GPS control... you see.

Pune: Our old PMPML :P .... no need to mention the details of how "efficient" they are. You miss one and you might have to wait for another half an hour :)

And don't even think about local trains. I have seen Pune-Mumbai trains being more frequent than Pune's local trains.

Mumbai: A sea... wow

Pune: A couple of rivers full of dirt (I don't know why puneites are proud of them)

Mumbai: No winters :(

Pune: chilling... I love it.

Mumbai: I would love to drive on those roads.
Pune: It is always a sweating experience for newbies.

Mumbai: Good chaat outlets
Pune: Don't even get me started on Pune's chaat... Come on... Chaat is not supposed to be sweet.

Well, I am not biased or anything. I don't hail from any of these cities. Hence, I think my perspective is neutral. I love both of these cities for being one of their own kind. More on my home town in later posts...

The Art of Calligraphy

Calligraphy literally means "beautiful handwriting". The word originates from Greek κάλλος kallos (beauty) + γραφή graphẽ (writing). It has been an art since man invented writing as a way of expressing thought. Today almost every language that can be written employs elegant handwriting when it comes to a showy display. As an art alongside painting and sketching, Calligraphy started experiencing a common presence in the range of arts in medieval ages. Many artists have developed a myriad of different styles for Calligraphy till today and these various fonts are frequently used in invitation cards, religious art and cut-stone inscriptions. Some prominent styles of Calligraphy are from Chinese, Arabic, Indian and Medieval European cultures. 

Western Calligraphy:

13th Century Bible

Western calligraphy is the writing style with Roman writing systems.  It flourished in the medieval period when churches started promoting the handwritten bibles. The ones written with a stylistic hand were of course the ones with more value and importance. And thus, calligraphy started flourishing in the West as an art through the religious texts. The image shown alongside shows an example of a thirteenth century handwritten Icelandic bible.

Today, with the advent of technology, handwritten texts have become rarer. But still, many artists still pursue the art of penmanship and also the computers are loaded with magnificent font styles of writing English and other languages.

Arabic Calligraphy: 

Ottoman Calligraphy

Arabic calligraphy evolved along with Islam in the Middle East. It has been a major medium of transmission of Quran, the holy book of Islam and thus is the most venerated art form in the Islamic world. Most of the Arabic Calligraphy is done using Arabic alphabets and it employs arabesque as the most prominent style. The alongside image shows a good example of Ottoman calligraphy from Turkey (Ottoman Empire). Even today, this art remains the major means of expression of religious scriptures and verses from Quran. 

Indian Calligraphy:

Mahabharata

On the same lines as the other religious texts, Hindu texts were also being  written in beautiful handwriting styles in old ages. The Indic scripts had developed their own forms of calligraphy and were often used for writing religious texts in Sanskrit. When Mughals ruled India, they brought Persian calligraphers in India along with them. The influence of Persian art can be seen on many texts and architecture of Mughal time. The text on Qutub Minar is a good example of Persian influence on Indian Calligraphy.

Eastern Asian Calligraphy:

Love

Calligraphy from far east employs Mandarin and Japanese scripts. The main tool of their calligraphy is a brush rather than a quill unlike Western calligraphy. The  use of brush brings a look of flowing letters in the Asian texts. As Mandarin uses symbols instead of alphabets for expressing ideas, the words mostly comprise of only one or two symbols and they can be elaborately embellished. Such decorated words can make good tattoos on your arms. Nevertheless, Asian calligraphy is a distinct art and needs a special skill with brush.

These all forms of calligraphy make the study of this art a truly profound subject. Its connection with the religious texts has made it a divine standard of writing from the old ages till today.  I hope it continues to flourish in today's world, although the use of pens and brushes is increasingly being an ignored standard over that of the keyboards and phones.