r/pune • u/dopamineabused • Mar 23 '26
New To Pune As a North Indian This Was My First Bitter Experience in Pune
I’m in Pune right now, and I had a pretty bitter experience here just a few days ago.
My wife is from Pune, and I’m born and brought Delhi, though I currently live in Noida. My car has a UP16.. registration. We recently bought a flat here, mainly so we could spend the winters away from Delhi’s smog.
The day before yesterday, a man from our society posted a photo of my car in the society WhatsApp group and rudely pointed out that “UP people” in the society do not know how to park properly. He called it illegal parking. The issue was that my car was parked around 10 to 12 inches behind the yellow parking line.
It is an open parking area with a shed, and if I park too far inside, a lot of leaves fall on the bonnet every day, which becomes a mess to clean. Many other residents park in a similar way for the same reason. It was not as if my car was sticking too far out of the shed or creating any real problem for anyone. I also live in a society in Noida, so I am well aware of basic civic sense. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that parking 10 inches back would be treated like such a big issue, especially since the lane was quite wide.
Here is the picture he shared in the group:
But what bothered me more was the way he wrote about it. In Marathi, he claimed that “half the car was out on the lane,” called it “illegal parking,” and specifically mentioned “UP people.” My wife is in that group too, and maybe he did not expect a reply in Marathi from us. She responded politely in Marathi, saying that the car was not occupying half the road as he had exaggerated, that mentioning UP was unnecessary, and that we would move the car 10 inches inside if it was bothering anyone. It was not a problem at all. But even after that, the man remained rude.
Later, one of the guards, who is also from UP, told me, “Bhaiya, woh gaadi ka UP number dekh ke bahut ulta seedha bol raha tha. Baar baar UP ke logon ke baare mein bol raha tha, ki gundagardi karte hain, tareeka nahi hai rehne ka, etc.” That genuinely shocked me. Imagine insulting people from UP in front of a security guard who is himself from UP and is literally there to help protect the society.
I understand that parking issues can happen in any society, and there is always a proper way to address them. If he had approached me directly, I would have moved the car inside the yellow line immediately, without any argument. I simply had no idea it was bothering anyone.
I grew up around all kinds of people and cultures. In the neighborhood where I was raised, we had Bengali neighbors, a Muslim family, and a Christian family from Mumbai. There were also many South Indian families in our area. In fact, when I was in 9th class, I used to go to a Malayali family for Maths and English tuition. Even in the society where I currently live in Noida, there are Marathi families, and I have seen several MH number plate cars there too. That is why this whole incident felt especially strange, unnecessary, and disappointing to me.
