Austin and Pune

I am often asked by my Indian friends living in USA about Austin. Usually I give an answer like "If Houston is Mumbai, then Austin is Pune." After considering the size of Austin and comparing it with that of Houston, that's the one line answer I had developed without much thought. Thankfully nobody asked what Dallas would be in that case. I would have probably said Nagpur though Nagpur is actually much smaller than Pune. Recently however, I was asked about Austin by someone from India and I couldn't give him the Houston example. That prompted me to give some thought to this comparison and I discovered that the two cities are indeed very similar.

To begin with, both are university "towns". While Austin has the renowned Univ. of Texas (which, being an Aggie, I must refer to as t.u.) and some other smaller universities, Pune has a score of great colleges and universities including Univ. of Pune, COEP, Fergusson College, BJ Medical etc. Being such excellent centers of learning both the cities have a large and educated young crowd including people from over the world.

With respect to live music and performing arts, Austin, with its live comedies and live music and cultural festivals is referred to as the live music capital of the world. At the same time, Pune too is the cultural capital of Maharashtra and is well known for its music and performing arts. Bal Gandharv Rangmandir, Tilak Smarak Mandir, Y. Chawan Natyagriha etc. of Pune match the various performing arts centers in Austin. In addition, just like Austin has the South-by-Southwest(SXSW) music festival, Pune also has the Sawai Gandharv Music Festival. Moreover, the Pune International Marathon and Austin Marathon are two famous annual events held in both the cities.

Geographically speaking, similar to Pune being 3 hrs away from Mumbai which is on the coast, Austin too is 3 hrs. away from Houston which is a coastal metro. Again, both cities are at a higher altitude though Pune is quite a bit higher than Austin. But I guess that can be overlooked since Maharashtra State isn't as flat as Texas. Moreover, Austin and Pune both have a hilly terrain in parts of the city and both also have a river flowing right through the middle of the city. The climate of the two cities is also roughly similar though the seasons differ due to being on different continents.

Being university towns, both cities also have many high-tech companies. Austin's Dell, IBM, Qualcomm, National Instruments, Intel, Samsung, AMD etc. are matched by Pune's Infosys, TCS, Wipro, BMC, Symantec, NVIDIA, IBM, Persistent, Geometric, TATA, Bajaj, Thermax etc. Just like Pune has the industrial township of Pimpri-Chinchwad to its north, Austin too has the town of Round Rock just north of it.

People in Pune and Austin are friendly in general as compared to the big cities in both countries. Besides, both these cities are also considered safe for people of all ages and genders. While the slogan "Keep Austin Wierd" is common in Austin, the slogan "Pune tithey kaay Une ?" ("पुणे तिथे काय उणे ?")(meaning: "In Pune, which is so rich and plentiful, what can there be a shortage of ?") is common in Pune too.

There are many more points of similarity which I can now think of, but I guess for now, I have already exceded my expectations of similarity between these two wonderful cities. I guess I no longer need to bluntly issue a one line answer if someone from India asks me about Austin; and if the person asking this lives in Pune, he / she probably is living in a very similar city separated just by the country, culture and ethics!!