I am writing this at 5 AM, catching up on everyone’s posts from Deccan Queen on Rails, and feeling very proud of my city.
I missed the 1–4 PM talks. A true Puneri needs his afternoon sleep to toil through the night. 😂 I was also sick and medicated, which is my slightly more respectable excuse.
But seeing the day through everyone’s photos, videos, and conversations has been special. Friends from the international Rails community came to Pune, and we got to welcome them into our home culture.
That was something I really wanted this conference to do.
A Puneri welcome
The food was Puneri. The welcome was Puneri. We had modak. We had dalcha bhat. We opened the day with an all-women dhol-tasha pathak, bringing the kind of energy that is hard to explain until you experience it yourself.
The diya-lighting ceremony followed, led by Amanda Perino, Irina Nazarova, Katie, my mavshi, my mom, and a representative from Zendesk. Having these women open the conference together meant a lot to me.
I wanted my Rails family to experience the Pune I know and love. These details were part of that welcome.
Sonam and the Saeloun team
So much of this came together because of Sonam Goyal and the Saeloun team.
This is Sonam’s first time running a conference end to end. She is my dear little sister, Saeloun’s co-CEO, and the person who bosses me around. She’s the boss. 😂
The attention to detail she and the team brought to this first edition has been amazing to see. There is a lot of work behind a day like this, and they deserve the credit for making it happen.
Bringing the Rails community to Pune
The talks have been another reason to feel proud. From what I have seen and heard, people have been staying in the sessions throughout the day, absorbed in the breadth of the programme and the depth of the speakers’ experience.
Sorry, sponsors! We will have to make special time for you. 😅
There is a real appetite here for people sharing what they are building at the edges of Rails and AI. The Indian Ruby and Rails audience wants that depth, and it has been wonderful to see the response.
I am especially grateful to the international speakers who showed up for a first-time conference. Amanda Perino, Irina Nazarova, and Marco Roth, thank you. And thank you to Vladimir Dementyev, who could not make it but helped us bring together the speakers.
I love my friends at Evil Martians. Maybe they will let me work for free on their awesome stuff someday. 😂
DHH sending a two-minute video also meant a lot. The acknowledgement and support from the Rails Foundation matter to a large Indian community that has been building with Rails for years.
Pune has a lot to show that wider community. At the conference, Zendesk shared that it has over 400 engineers in Pune. Pattern, Josh Software, Saeloun, Coupa, and many more specialist consultancies are part of the city’s engineering community too.
And PuneRB has kept the local Ruby community active for more than 15 years. That kind of continuity takes people who keep showing up, organising, sharing, and helping each other. As a Puneri, I could not be prouder of it.
More time together
The plans around the conference include a Ruby karaoke and games night at the Saeloun office, along with Pune Darshan to share more of the city’s heritage with our international friends. I am looking forward to those conversations too.
Finally, thank you to the Saeloun team and the PuneRB community. Saeloun made this first edition possible, including the less glamorous fact that conferences need money. 🤑😅 Without the team and the community, none of this would have happened.
Next year, I would love to see more Rails companies from Pune and across India join us. Shopify and many others, come help us show what this community is building.
There is so much talent in India’s Ruby and Rails community. I hope this first edition leads to more friendships, more shared work, and more opportunities to build the next things together as peers.
That is what I want to carry forward from Deccan Queen on Rails.
Adapted from my original X article, published on October 9, 2026.
