Mumbaikar, Punekar, aani Nagpurkar


Priya "jaaLakaryanno" (netters ?):

Let me start with a disclaimer: This is not a flame bait. Only serious thoughts/comments on this article are requested. I have nothing against any of the categories above. I have grown up in Vidarbha and have several relatives (at least one per peTh/nagar) in Nagpur. My wife (and some other best friends) is from Pune. (In fact Sadashiv PeTh.) Many relatives have settled in Bombay (arthaat poTaapaaNyaasaaThee, otherwise there was no need for them to do that :-)) For the rest of maharashtra, I completely agree with Pu. La. when he says, "jyaanchyaapuDhe kar joDaave ase he teenach". Please note the "shlesh" on "kar" here and do not flame me. //end_of_disclaimer

Though I agree that in this world, the definition of a typical resident of a town changes frequently, there are still enough differences between them to distinguish them based on their roots. So when one says "PuNekar", it does not apply to all PuNekars (similarly for mumbai, nagpur etc)

P.L. may have written that article (MPN) long ago, but we still notice those traits of characters in us, our friends and acquaintances. In fact in most of the cases, I can recognize people belonging to these categories from their style of maraathee postings on this newsgroup.To give you an example. There was posting which mentioned various recipes which included "shrikhanDa". There came a reply to this which was somewhat of this nature: "AamrakhanDa khaalla aahe kaa kadhee ?" PuNekar, dusare koN asaNaar ? Itakaa jajjwalya abhimaan, tohi aamrakhanDavishayee ? dusaryaa koNaat asaNaar ? (Nagpurkar is definitely proud of his vaDabhaat, but the difference is in magnitude. By the way, in Nagpur, vaDaabhaat is referred to as Chandrapuree vaDaabhaat)

dusare mhanje. Shivaajee cha abhimaan baaLagNaare puNekar (kaahi) Babasaheb Purandaryaanchee Dhong mhaNoon sambhaavanaa kartaat. (mhanje aapalaa abhimaan haach sarwaat jajjwalya, ashee ke bhaavanaa asate)

On the other hand, the only thing (other than vaDaabhaat) that Nagpurkar are proud of is that they treat everyone as "Dhong". Meet any Nagpurkar and let the topic of discussion come to shakuntalaa devee (the arithmetical genius). He will tell you, "aho sagaLeekaDe tichee Dhongbaajee chaalalee, paN naagpuraat naahi." An average nagpurkar is proud of the fact that, shakuntala devi had to flee from nagpur. Nagpurkars are similarly proud of paining Reena Roy during a cricket match (reena roy kaa ek hee bhaai , mohsin bhaai, mohsin bhaai), they will also tell you the reason why Lata Mangeshkar has vowed not to come to Nagpur again in her life. (Abe, karyakram suru hoNaar hota 9 waajata, aaNi tee aalee 11 la. mag marale fekun TamaaTe.) They will tell you how dhananjay kulkarNi was frustrated in Nagpur. (dhananjay kulakraNi is the guy who jumped from deccan queen, ate light bulbs and pulled a truck single handed.) They will tell you that he was supposed to jump from 5th floor of a building and while he was getting ready to do that, someone jumped from 6th floor. So, the point is, Nagpurkar is proud of the fact that "Nagpuraat moThyamoThyaanchaa moroo zaalaa."

maraaThee bhaashela naagpurchee deNgee mhanje bhakkam shivyaa. I have met nagpurkars who are proud of this fact too. "abe tya puNya- Mumbaichya shivyaa mhaNje saalya shivyaach vaaTat naahi." Of course they forget that they have a biggest khaaN of shivyaa available to them: Hindi.

Saahityik, kavi yaanche veD Nagpurlaa naahi. Saaryaa maharashtraat suresh bhaTaanche naav gazalesaaThee ghetaat. Nagpurla maatra, " abe wo suresh bhat to daaru peeke paDaa rahtaa hai dhantoli chowk mein" ashee tyanchee sambhaavana hote. TyamuLe vidarbha saahitya sanghachya imaaratee cha upayog, barechda haatmaagaachya pradarshanaasaathee hoto.

PuNyaat lokaanna aamchya gharee "sakaaL" yeto mhanoon aamhee shreshTha, tumhee "kesaree" gheta mhanoon tumhee magaaslele, ashee bhaavanaa aahe tee matra naagpuraat naahi. PaN "taruN bhaarat" gheNaare mhaNje "chaDDeewaale" ase matra gaNit aahe. But chaDDeewale is not said with contempt in Nagpur. (Maybe bacause RSS originated from there)

Mumbaikaraanna abhimaan baLagaayala veL kuThe asato ? Aani abhimaan baLagoon taree kashaachaa baLagnaar ? Aamchee 6.03 chee local tumchya SimhagaD express chya muskaTaat lavate mhaNaNaar ? Kee aamchya gharaasamor kinai kittee chhan zopaDpaTTee aahe mhaNoon saangoo mhaNaNaar ?

Some time back on this newsgroup, there was an argument that if people hate puNe why do they settle there ? Please note that most of the immigrants (low-life according to that poster) to Pune are from Mumbai. And I haven't seen any posts from Mumbaikars on this PuNe bashing thread. To settle in PuNe after retirement is not a dream of Nagpurkar. He is happy in his bunglow/ghar in Nagpur and is not envious of people having flats in kothruD.

But then, my argument is, why hate PuNe ? In fact why hate any city at all ? puNyaat puNekar, nagpuraat nagpurkar aaNi mumbait mumbaikar houn raahaNyaaitake sukh dusare naahi mhaNoon saangato. suruvaateela thoDa traas hoto naahi mhaTala taree. MhaNje tumhee 44 la "chaurechaaLees" mhaNataa. Mag puNyaat lok tumhaala hastaat. Tyanna "chavvechaaLees" expected asata. Te chaalaayachach. Adjust whaayala kaahi faarasa veL laagat naahi. Swanubhavavaroon saangato.

Milind Bhandarkar

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