On his arrival at Pune Railway Station, Nikhil Sood and his batchmates were shephered to the Cantonment area of the city. And, there he saw two boys racing around on superbikes. He hadn’t seen this sight in all the cities that he had lived in till then.
“That was my first impression of Pune and quite a lasting one, considering I am a part of the city’s biking community now,” says Sood, a businessman.
An Army kid, he had lived in Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Assam and Dehradun before moving to Pune in 2002 to study in Army Institute of Technology.
“My hostel years were quite similar to the life I led as an Army kid. The institute was open to the wards of Army personnel, so it was mini-India. I mingled with people of all castes, creeds and religion. After my course, I joined the IT sector, where I worked with people from northern and southern India and also from Maharashtra,” says Sood.
He continued to stay in Pune because of the moderate weather. “In the North, there are extreme temperatures. I liked Pune because it was pleasant, it wasn’t too hot. Of course, the city’s weather pattern has changed now. Another reason was the biking community. In all my years here, I don’t think there is any destination on the outskirts of Pune or in the district that I haven’t been to. On most weekends I go for a joyride to the countryside,” he says.
After setting up his business, he started interacting more with the locals, Marathi and Marwari community. “Up North, people show off a lot. The Marathi populace is very down-to-earth and at times, shrewd. Maharashtrians accept others the way they are,” says Sood, who stays in Sus-Pashan neighbourhood.
