If Kolkata was industry incarnate, old meets new in a clash of styles, then Pune is very much the French Riviera, or at least one of half a dozen Italian cities I can think of. It's not immediately by the sea, it's not even blazingly sunny, but there's an attitude that just screams 'Ciao, bella' at you as you walk down a street.

It's day four and I'm in the Taj Blue Diamond hotel in Pune. It's a nice yet slightly run-down hotel where reception is a makeshift corner of the first floor landing while essential building works occur in the main part of the hotel. And by building works, I mean the entrance looks like a meteor hit it. Which makes me realise how the average citizen in the Marvel comics New York must feel on any given day.

And from the first moment I hit, I realised that Pune was different to Kolkata. It felt different. Not better, not smoother, cooler – but more cosmopolitan. Which was crazy because Kolkata was one of the most cosmopolitan cities I'd ever been in. I just couldn't put my finger on it, until I saw the man who picked his wife up at the airport. She had a carry on case, a duty free carrier bag and wore a soft gold sari. He pulled up on a Bandit, a black, growling sportsbike. He had no helmet, wore simply a white shirt and jeans. She passed him the carrier which he hung off the right handlebar. She then clambered onto the back, sitting side saddle due to her sari and, with one hand around him, held the carry on case tight to her chest with the other. They laughed as they sped off at speed into the traffic which, although not as batshit crazy as the Kolkata traffic, is pretty intense nevertheless. And, as they rode off, I realised why I had such a 'Roman Holiday' vibe to the place. It's about a three – to – one ratio of bikes and scooters to cars in Pune. They're everywhere, weaving through traffic, nearly always with two people on them. Sports bikes and scooters, usually stylised Vespa clones whiz around the cars, beeping happily as their owners, un helmeted yet wearing the latested styles of sunglasses, shirts flapping free in the wind, no leathers on whatsoever sit on them, smiling, laughing, talking to their passenger, or chatting on the phone. It's an insane vision to watch, yet at the same time it gives an impression of such freedom that all you want to do is leap on a scooter and go for a spin.

The driver informed me that there was a law that required helmets to be worn – it was just that nobody paid attention, due to a clause that said that if your journey was less than a mile, it wasn't compulsary. Suffice to say, everyone's journeys were obviously under a mile.

(I was told later that there was a similar law about smoking on the street, told to me by someone who was, you've guessed it, smoking on the street.)

But yesterday, day four and my first in Pune, was my day off. And God knows, I needed it. I hadn't slept the night before, needing to wake and rise at four in the morning, and by the time I hit the hotel at Pune I'd been awake for over twenty four hours, several of these in lecture, mixed with a healthy helping of jet lag. I was slightly broken and managed three hours sleep in the early afternoon before taking a stroll.

In all the years I've been travelling this world, I've always had this one tenet – you can't truly see a city until you've been lost in it. And by lost I mean take random streets, walk into random places, leave that well guided path and play in the undergrowth. And with Kolkata I wasn't able to due to time, location and commitments. But here in Pune, with a day off, I was able to walk freely. And the first thing I noticed was the utter lack of interest I received.

I'm a stranger in a strange land, I know. But I've been in countries where I was the only pale skinned man around before, and often it creates a form of unconsious interest, you find yourself looking at the person who doesn't fit the picture because, well, they're different. And in Kolkata, I'd found a couple of times that I seemed to be a source of interest, often for people asking for money - but in Pune, nobody cared. I was totally ignored. Which was wonderful. I strolled around for a couple of hours, took in one of the large shopping centres, a Pune version of Debenhams, where they had a school of eight year old children singing Kareoke with what sounded like nursery rhymes or children's songs. Families applauded and even the customers stopped, watched and cheered. It was incredibly uplifting and once again I was touched with the strength of spirit that the Indian people have.

I saw some dogs in the street, what looked like strays – and even they seemed happy, giving me little doggy grins and wagging their grizzled old tails as I walked on by.

Back at the hotel, I tried an 'Americano Pizza', having tired of rice dishes for the moment. I seriously suggest to anyone staying here? Stick to the rice. When in Rome and all that.

And then it was the evening, and I met up with Twitter chums Aditya Bidikar and Nikhil Kumar Verma for some drinks at 'The Hidden Place', a bar down the road in Pune, and a good night was had by all. Aditya is an incredibly talented Indian writer who will one day be an even bigger name than he currently is and at that point will be competition and therefore need to be killed, but currently he is allowed to live by my will (and both of these fine chaps should be twitter followed right now) and we spent a very enjoyable hour working through an eight page story he'd written before Nikhil arrived – Nikhil is more of a reader than a creator and the evening was spent discussing the skill of writing, the comics that we loved and television shows that should be watched.

They told me of their love for Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis. I told them that Warren was a scary old man who beat up midgets with French baguettes, this only seemed to make them like him even more.

And then the day was over, I said my goodbyes to my two new friends and returned to my hotel to sleep. Today I have two hours of television and radio interviews, a talk at the Pune British Library and then 'High tea' with consular officials before I return to the hotel late this evening. And then at early O'Clock tomorrow morning I fly to Bangalore, where I have an 11.30am talk.

Pune, our time was short, but you touched my heart. Now let me have a go on your scooter.

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