Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
I'm more Bangalore and Hyderabad these days, which are thankfully far more friendly when it comes to direct routes from LHR. So my advice would be "work for a different company"
The old thread is useful (I hope) and due consideration should be given to your personal risk factors when choosing to select the drive up the Death Highway. I'm past the age of daring-do now and so would not consider it again; instead choosing a connecting flight which is a few orders of magnitude safer. If the connection from AUH is still running then that would be my favoured option if forced to visit Pune (and only Pune) again.
Pune is the only Indian city I've been to with very few redeeming features. So my advice would be to check-out the IPL fixture list and engineer your visit to correspond with one.