Pune of 90s; An outside view

Continuing on Pune city.
In came 90s with a lot of political uncertainty with eras of VP singhs, devilals and chandrashekhars. Assasination of Rajiv Gandhi resulted into congress headed by Shrewd PV Narasinharao into power. manmohan singh had no alternative but to liberalize and though not many credit PVN for what he did but according to most keen observers in politics it would not have been possible under anyone elses leadership. Coming to topic, Liberalization came in. came in MNCs, Brands, Cars , TV Channels. India was now exposed to world. Muliple channels started. I remember craze for B&B, Baywatch etc... Zee started Bollywood top ten etc with some bold serials etc. In mid 90s to late 90s pune got taste of Macdonalds, Pizza Hut, Dominos and many brands. Colleges started mushrooming. Many outsiders started sending their children to Pune in these colleges. Mainly Engg, medical and MBA.
I meanwhile did the reverse migration going out from Pune to kharagpur for education. I thus lost everyday experience of Pune in 90s till 01. But i was either a vacationer or weekender throughout this span. Thus every vacation visit resulted in finding new changes. MG Road, Deccan now were hangouts for these collegians. Flats in Kothrud, aundh etc were shared by this crowd. These hostelites acted as role model for citilities (another COEP term). Intercollegiate drama fests etc attracted more intensity, sponsorship. Ganesh festival went from bad to worse with noise and pollution levels, unrestricted crowds. This is the time there was alround development in adjoining areas like Kondhwa, wanowrie, kalyani Nagar, Viman Nagar, Vishrantwadi mainly cosmopolitan look and feel.
On IT scene by early 90s few software companies really got push from Y2k, early to mid 90s were formation years and by mid 90s we had strong bodyshopping model. Everyone had US dreams. earlier only iit/coep crowd used this route through scholarships. But now companies started sending bodies. Every house had someone sent to US. US grooms were in thing in marraiges.
Cars started rolling in. Maruti 800 was height of status till early and mid 90s. In came Santro, Zen, Cielo, esteem. But Roads were same. two wheelers came in with more than 100 cc etc. small scooties with terrorist like clad females riding them was a common site. cycles started vanishing. Then came the opiom of masses: Mobile phones. having cell phone was height of self importance. rates were 16rs/ min and cost of handset was 10 to 15 k with those bulky models.
Mumbai Pune AC coaches were introduced by Metrolink. But road travel was still messty. i was stuck many times for whole night in such buses.
Migration from peth to kothrud was not complete. Thus Kothrud, aundh societies were in things. Big builders got bigger. many big schemes were planned which materialized by end of 90s like woodlands, karishma, swapnashilp, girija shankar, parisar.
Hotels started mushrooming on J M road. Out of Pune Dhabas got popularity. Chandani chowk got prominence. Sinhagad got accessable with more vehicles. At single advent of rains people started flocking. weekend outings started to be popular to lonavala, mahableshwar, konkan etc.
We got first Pub in Pune TDS. Camp was ultra modern with fancy shops, branded stores.
Cinema was still single screen with Rahul, westend, among top. Cinema turned romantic from action in this period. Yashraj scored hot with Darr, DDLJ. Hum apke was phenomenon. Aamir, shahrukh, salman came in. Songs were big, NRI crowd tastes were introduced.
Its in late 90s that companies started making Big in Pune. Industrial belt of PCMC went through crisis in mid 90s but recovered thanks to Indica project which took off in late 90s. Plus companies innovated in energy, biotech etc. In mid 90s lot of core engineers shifted to IT. There was a craze to do SAP. Hinjewadi became operational by late 90s. expressway was inaugurated in 01 and that marked another phase of Pune of new millenium.
If 80s were meant in preserving pune of old though with a small window of growth in mid 80s, 90s meant change throughout and all around. It was the beginning of end of old time charm of Pune and ringing in of a new Pune which still has mixture of old habits out of nostalgia, new dynamics, resignation to change and insecurity of future.