Glimpses of Nagpur

I had never been to Nagpur before though a close friend who works there had been inviting me to come over. On Sunday I went to Nagpur to attend an official meeting and stayed there for three and half days. It was a nice trip which ended with a visit to Wardha where I saw the fountain pen used by Mahatma Gandhi.

Nagpur is located in exactly the center of the country I learnt. There is something called the ‘Zero Milestone’ here but I could have only a fleeting glimpse of it. I had wanted to see it later in the day but didn’t get the time.

It was cold the day I reached and colder still the next day when the mercury plunged to 9 degrees. The papers said that it was the coldest day of the season. In summer it touches 49 degrees I was told. These extremes in weather may be due to the fact that there is dense forest all around Nagpur.

Coming from Hyderabad where the traffic is chaotic to say the least, Nagpur appeared like heaven with its thin traffic and open roads. Two wheeler riders don’t wear helmets and every one follows traffic rules. The girls wrap their chunnis around their faces leaving only th eyes uncovered while zipping around on two wheelers.

Food is expensive here and a plate of upma I had for breakfast at a South Indian hotel (Brindavan) cost me twenty two rupees and a cup of coffee was twelve bucks. The other day we had been to a Maharashtrian hotel for local food and I was shocked to see two rotis and a curry (jhunka) cost me eighty bucks. Funnily enough, all the hotels were almost empty and I wonder if it has anything to do with the prices. Or maybe people in Nagpur don’t like to eat out.

I had, on the final day of my trip, found that the largest wood market in Asia, the Lakkadgunj Bazar, is in Nagpur. I hadn’t actually planned any sight seeing trips but the trip to Wardha took up all the time. This was one trip I didn’t plan carefully so ended up doing nothing touristy. I had planned to look up stationery stores to see if I could find any local made fountain pens. I wasn’t able to do this too.

Maybe on the next trip to Nagpur I will get to see all the things I wanted to see there. The only surprising thing was finding Dave Barry’s column in a local paper! It was the Lokmat Times I guess.