Spotted In New York: Car With A Special Number Plate That Says Punekar

In India, many people express pride in their home state or city. They often decorate their vehicles with special stickers or slogans. While such things are common in India, one would rarely see it happening in the USA. Interestingly, now a video of a car on the roads of New York that has the word “Punekar” written boldly on the number plate is going viral. The car in question is a white Tesla. An undated video of this car was recently shared on Instagram by a Pune-centric account. The video’s caption simply read, “Punekar in New York City.”

The video appears to be recorded by people who were in a vehicle behind the white Tesla. The person recording the video expressed awe at spotting the car with “Punekar” written on it. In conversation with his co-passenger, the person explains that “Punekar” is a nod to a city in Maharashtra, where he is from. His co-passenger disagrees and says it means “Pun-Pun car”. The two argue about it while the video ends. The word “Punekar” means an inhabitant or native of Pune.

Commenting on this video, an Instagram user wrote, “Punekar everywhere! Jagatbhari”. The word “Jagatbhari” means “World’s Best” in Marathi. Another person wrote, “He must be driving properly there.” Someone else remarked, “I have never seen such a plate before.”

This was not the only time when an owner of a luxury car mentioned their home state or city on their car’s number plate in a foreign country. Last week, an interview with a Bihari man went viral in which he boasted about having a number plate with the word “Bihar” on it. The Indian-origin man, who is based in Australia, put this number plate on his Mercedes Benz SUV which is estimated to cost Rs 4 crore.

While speaking to the interviewer, the young man said that he would never sell or pass this number plate to anyone, regardless of how much money is offered. He said that by having a luxury car in Australia with the word “Bihar” written on it, he wants to show that Biharis are thriving all over the world. The man got permission to add “Bihar” on his car’s number plate after much struggle with the Australian Transport Authority.