Hydera(bad). Truly!

When I wanted to change my job 5 years ago I never thought I will end up in a company in Hyderabad. I thought I would easily get a job in Bangalore and left for this city to stay for a month and I wouldn't miss any walk-ins that were happening in the city then. One of my friends had an interview call from a company and he had no clue of the place where it was happening as he was new in Bangalore, and I knew the place. I went to this company’s hiring stall to show my friend the place. But at last it happened so that I could attend the interview and I got selected with a decent pay package and my friend couldn’t get through the first round itself.

I was disappointed. I was unhappy for 2 reasons. First reason obviously was that my friend travelled from Kerala only to attend this interview and he couldn’t make it. And the second was that, the HR representative had told me that my posting would be in Hyderabad, not Bangalore. Bangalore was as dear to me as Cochin and I had many friends, cousins and other relatives there. But Hyderabad seemed scary to me. My idea of Hyderabad was that of a city with unclean and old buildings and roads and a city where Hind-Muslim tension always exists. In Hyderabad I had no relatives and didn’t have many close friends too. Finally I decided to accept the offer after having lot of discussions re-discussions with friends. My idea was to find another job in Bangalore in 6 months time and go back.

But, Hyderabad surprised me when I actually landed here. It was a clean and green city. Leave the old city area apart, the rest of the city had well maintained roads, trees on either sides of the roads, flowers and creepers on the dividers etc etc. The traffic was horrible but it didn’t bother me much as I managed to get a place to stay just 5 minutes walk from the office. And to my surprise my Telugu colleagues were so supportive and co-operative in contrary to what I’ve heard of telugu IT people. The girl who came to stay for 6 months did not even think of applying for another job in another city for 5 years!

Now…

I stopped encouraging people to come to Hyderabad as life here has become hell these days. Imagine a city with only potholes and no road to drive on. Imagine a city with 7 hours power cut. 4 hours announced and “only-god-knows-hours” unannounced. A city where the flyover at construction collapses to kill passer-by. City where a completed flyover on a busiest road waits for the Chief Minister to come back from his B’day Celebration in Maldives to get it inaugurated. 200 year old Banyan Trees gets chopped mercilessly in this city. All these scenes replace some of the old scenes I remember like, a small gutter gets repaired immediately after it was formed, power cuts were a total no-no and big trees were brought into the city by lorries from outskirts to plant on the road sides. I don’t know if you will find another city in india where traffic police men are considered junks. Here in the Electricity Office they do readily accept that the system is 95% corrupted and they are helpless. You go to any gas (Indane) agency and enjoy their fabulous customer service and cook food with air. Go to RTA and learn how to bribe without any hindrance and embarrassment.

I longed to settle down in this city once upon a time. I no longer do.For now, let me dream of a small house in Valparai. After all, in India cities are all the same.

Gosh! I am not financially Independent

No..No.. you guessed it wrong. I didn't mean to say that I have to beg before my husband for a hundred bucks to get my pedicure done. Nor does it mean that I am complaining of not earning enough. Was just going through Vinayah's blog (which I happened to step in during a google search and now in my favourites) where he loudly thinks how independent he is financially. He was mentioning this based on this

So let me see how independent I am this way.

Freedom from financial reliance on loved ones

Yes. I'm finacially not dependent on my loved ones. I started earning at the age of 20, that is soon after my graduation. The first stipend of Rs.1300 I got from my part time job as a machine room co-ordinator in a leading software training institute was more than sufficient for me to meet my expenses then. It also served for an extravaganza of having an american chopsey with a friend or having a vanilla-chocolate double sundae or grabing that chiken worked light blue salwar suit once in a while. It was a good and steady growth from there, and the earnings also grew decently in par with my needs. (Should I say it vice versa? :) )

Freedom from financial reliance on creditors

Nope! :(

I have the positive points of
1. Not having any credit card debt.
2. Not having any education loans to be paid.
3. Not having any home loans to be paid.
4. Having independent life insurance to take care of my dependents.
5. Having some fixed assets which may be helpful in the distant future.

I have some neutral points. Why I say they are neither positive nor negative because I enjoy the benefits as they exist as of now but they are totally dependent on my job.
1. I have health insurance for myself offered by my employer.
2. I have health insurance for my dependents, offered by my employer
3. I do not owe money to any person (This is partially true, as I owe 25000 to George but not a negative point as I have kept the amount separately in an account to give it to him. Where does he have time to come back to India? ;) )

Oh! My negative points:
1. I have a car loan to be paid - 3.5 more years left.
2. I have a personal loans to be paid - 1 more year left.
3. I do not have a sufficient emergency fund in place.
4. I do have to worry at the news of IT companies giving layoffs and when dollar gets sick & weak.

Freedom from financial reliance on employment
No way! Atleast as of now, I cannot even think of not having those rush hours in the morning so I can enjoy a cup of tea at ease in the morning. And go to pickup grocery at 11 a.m, avoiding the endless queue in food world in the evenings. And curl up in the sofa to catch up a nap watching that boring Malayalam serials they show in the afternoons. No.. I have a long long way to reach there. (I'm sure those serials would still be continuing with the heroine's grand daughter getting married to her ex-boyfriends step daughter's son and they meet after years at the wedding reception! )

Now, coming to establishing a plan to achieve my financial goals. Aaha! I have a very easy way. Turn to my husband and say,
I do baby sit
I do sweeping and mopping
I do dishes
I do laundry
I do house keeping
I do cooking
I do grocery shopping
I do inviting/talking to our relatives and friends and maintain the relationships fresh
Then why do I need to work too? Honey, you take care of all the financial responsibility and let me be financially independent. Wow! :)

Poor Guy. The next day I would see his blog with his list of additional financial burdens.. he.. he...

Now, no joke, I have to think seriously of some "freedom from worry" plans.

Here I begin

I am just another person in the ocean of fellow human beings in this big big world. That's all I am. Atleast that much I am!