During the summers of 2004, I was in Pune for my summer internship in Forbes Marshall, Kasarwadi. I was new in Pune and was staying at Kothrud with some of my seniors from IIT. I checked with one of my seniors, whom we used to call uncle, the way to reach Kasarwadi. Uncle told me that I would get a bus from the nearest bus stop to Corporation and from Corporation I can get bus to any place.
Next day morning I was at the nearest bus stop waiting for the bus that would take me to the corporation. There were some people waiting at bus stop so I decided to ask them if there were any direct bus to my destination Kasarwadi. I asked one bystander, which bus would take me to Kasarwadi. He responded, "Nigadi jayegi". I did not understand what he meant. I thought Nigadi must be some word in marathi. I checked with some other people and they all gave me same response. So I decided to walk to next bus stop. People at the next bus stop also told me the same. I thus walked to the 5th bus stop from Kothrud and checked with people standing there. This person again told me, "Nigadi jayegi." I couldn't stop but ask him, "yahan bus ke number nahi hote kya?" This guy somehow understood my problem and told me that he is going to the same direction and I can accompany him. So I decided to follow him.
The person from the bus stop climed the next bus and I followed. He asked for the ticket to Manapa and I did the same. The bus finally stopped at Manapa and the person got off the bus and I climbed down with him. The guy asked me to get a ticket for Kasarwadi from the ticket counter. After getting the ticket I got in the bus and I noticed that Nigadi is a place and not a Marathi word and all those people were at those bus stops were trying to tell me that the buses going to Nigadi will pass through Kasarwadi. On my way to Kasarwadi I was looking out of the bus and I noticed at one particular place on a wall just above a window Khadaki was written and I told myself, "kitne pagal log hain, khidaki ko khadaki likh rakha hai."
Finally I noticed Forbes Marshall office and got off the bus. In the evening I had to come back to Kothrud and the helping stranger from morning was obviously not there. So I decided to follow the same path back. I waited for a bus and got on the first bus I got. In the bus I asked the conductor to give me a ticket to Manapa. I gave him the money and he gave me the ticket. Then another person who climbed the bus with me asked for a ticket to Corporation. That reminded me what uncle said previous morning. So I asked the conductor to give me a ticket to Corporation instead of Manapa. The conductor looked at me and told me, "same hi hai." I thought may be the cost of ticket to Manapa and Corporation is same. In the bus I noticed some people buying tickets for Khadaki also. Finally the bus stopped at Manapa and everyone got out. I realised that this is the last stop and this will probably not go to Corporation, so I got down. The moment I got off the bus I looked up and noticed a big bright red sign board Pune Municipal CORPORATION, MAha NAgar PAlika.
That day I learned three things Nigadi is name of a place, Corporation and Manapa are same and Khadaki is not a spelling mistake.
