July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years)
I did a Google search to see what has significantly happened on July 6th in the history of mankind. I did not find anything that really matters to us. Like:
1483 - England's King Richard III crowned
1785 – The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.
1886 - Horlick's of Wisconsin offers 1st malted milk to public
1892 – Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
1958 - Alaska becomes 49th state of United States Of America.
1947 – The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
2006 – The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.
However, July 6th of 2010 is significant for me as I'm leaving a job where I worked for 6 years and a crowd I was most comfortable in. I’m also leaving a city which has seen a lot of me. 7 years is not a small duration in one's life.
I came to Hyderabad on the day I joined Virtusa as an engineer. I got the chance to work with one of the best companies in Hyderabad. I started living too far away from my parents’ umbrella which was very tough initially and then eventually I learned the ways of life. This is the city where I started living independently. I bought my first vehicle – a two wheeler – here. Here is where I met my husband for the first time. When I was getting married I remember how my fellow team members travelled all the way to Kerala and celebrated it. We had our baby in this city. We bought our first car & first apartment in this city.
Slowly we were becoming Hyderabadis and the city had adopted us. We felt shame when an outsider said something bad about the roads or traffic. I argued with people who said Hyderabad weather is bad. I proudly invited friends and relatives to visit Hyderabad and enthusiastically took them around as if Charminar is where I was born and Golconda is where I went to school, and Ramoji Film City is where I spent every evening. I felt equally bad as a Hyderabadi whenever something bad happened in the city, be it the sad accidental demise of our chief minister or be it the row of group violence and riots caused as part of the Telengana issue or be it simply the bad condition of roads everywhere in the city.
When I started a blog in Malayalam and joined the Malayali Blogger's group, I was the only one who was blogging in Malayalam from Hyderabad. I chose the blogger name as Biriyanikutty as a testimonial to what this city is most known for- It’s Biriyani. For a long tenure, whenever the Malayalam blogosphere think or hear of Hyderabad, they remembered Biriyanikutty until I stopped writing Malayalam blogs and more and more Malayali’s from Hyderabad started to blog.
When I moved to Vignette which later became OpenText, nothing changed except the company name and work timing. I was with same group of dear people and we continued to do the same work. The 5.5 years I spent in Virtusa and the 1.5 years in OpenText.. Hmmm.. what to say.. are invaluable to me. I found some of my best friends here. I will miss them.
The day I'm leaving OpenText, I'm leaving Hyderabad as well. I had a million good experiences and 2 or 3 bad ones. But that's natural where ever you are and is just Okay. I'm leaving Hyderabad without having any ill feeling for anyone. I'm saying bye to Hyderabad with the contentment because I've solved some slight frictions with a very few people, caused by some misunderstandings and some by my arrogance.
I'm contented. (After all, I worked for Content Management for 6 years, he he.. :) )
Tomorrow, in a new city.
Showing posts with label Hyderabad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hyderabad. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Pragathi Nagar
When my office shifted its location to Hitec city it was too far for me to compromise with. 20 kms in the city traffic to and fro was so much of a compromise at the cost of at least one hour of less sleep plus 2 hours of extra travel and the result would be an outworn me. That is when we decided to move from the Secunderabad house where we lived for 5 years. The search for a new house ended at Pragathi Nagar, a place which literally deceived us with its beauty. You are welcomed with a lovely sight of a vast lake with tranquil light green water on either side of the road, when you enter Pragathi Nagar. The rock stones that peep from the middle of the lake make residence for some small bushes and numerous variety of cute birds. Once you cross this lake you are in Pragathi Nagar. It is actually a panchayat which is the first one to receive ISO 9001:2000 certification. It was only 8 kms from the office which means a 15 minutes drive.
The house we saw in Pragathi Nagar was an independent duplex house in a gated community of 30 neighbors. The resemblance of our houses in Kerala and the sight of a small soil compound attached to the house tempted us to finalise that house. I used to feel sorry for what my son was missing for being brought up in apartments when we had our childhood so free in air, soil, mud and water. This small piece of bare soil made me happy as my son could play with it as we did in our childhood. It was a neatly maintained community and was gate watched. The house was not occupied by anyone else before. The sight from the kitchen windows and the bedroom balcony was so nice like a painted scenery. Little did we know of the problems we were going to face at the time of finalizing the deal with the house owner.
The night after the first day in the new house we realised that we are sharing this house with some others. Some others meant a million others. 1 million mosquitoes! Advantage no: 1 of having a big beautiful lake next to your residence. We partially solved the issue by fixing mosquito nets on all the windows. But the dream of spending easy evenings in the society's gardens outside the house turned out to be a fanciful one. We neither wanted to be seen with elephant legs nor to end up in hospital with dengue fever.
The first day morning in the house I realised that the scenery of the small green rocky hills from the kitchen window in the morning had special appearance of artists performing their morning pooja with a cup of water. I knew about the labor colony at the base of that hill but never imagined they had this mass pooja performed behind the small rocks and bushes on the hill. Yes, convenient for them - fresh air, abundant fresh water in the lake - such a relief. They must be singing the film song aa aa..aa aa aaja.. piya tu ab to aaja.. I was sure, indeed in relief. I never opened the kitchen window again.
Soon we realised that the promised 24 hours bore well water supply was not valid for summer. Society made it clear that they would release water only from June or July that too as per the availability of ground water. Did they expect us to wait for 2 or 3 months to take bath as they do? We had to start depending on water tankers. That became an additional expense and an added head ache to call them, wait for them, watch them not stealing water from our tanker and sell it to someone else.
I have to say that my son enjoyed playing outside and started digging the soil, filling the well he made with water (that we buy for a price) and molding different shapes with mud. We were happy for him, till the monsoons. We were happy to see the monsoon nearing so that our water tanker events could come to a halt. But the monsoons brought us new guests at home. They appeared from nowhere and scared us. The small hill top that we were staying was recently developed prior to which it was a rocky bushy jungle. The locals were not so happy for the new occupants and they had not left the place. They were hiding till then and came out to enjoy the rains. My son's play in the garden was then stopped. After all the water snakes and scorpions were not so fun to be with.
From then onwards everything was a problem. Or we felt so. The road from this panchayat to the main road was so broken that it made the commute very difficult. The original road to the main junction was so broken that we had to take an alternate route which added another 15 minutes to the journey. I had 2 accidents with my 2 wheeler both the times I was nicely injured. As if the gutters are not enough they had speed breakers every 200 meters. Our 4 wheeler had to get serviced twice. The panchayat roads were all cement roads, not black top tar roads which made them very very dusty. How come we did not notice all these before the decision was made? I told you that lake, like an appealing slut with her charming smile invited us and we were trapped.
The panchayat being an award winning one they were not selling any alcohol. Leave alone liquor or anything alcoholic, even fizzy drinks like Coke, Pepsi etc were also not sold in shops. Though this did not particularly bothered me, it was the prime reason for my husband to find the place as 'not livable'. Most of the people in this village were not speaking anything other than Telugu made our problems to double it. Those days how I missed the 1 pm Sunday doordarsan news(for the hearing impaired)! The housing colony that we stayed had many houses vacant. Among those who occupied more than half of the house wives were also Telugu only-s. (Though the husbands are all placed in MNCs) This limited my interaction with the neighbors .
If you dislike something , the more and more you start finding faults with it. Same happened to us with Pargathi nagar. We started feeling that there was something wrong with the house. Someone or the other at home was always sick. To add to that I had 2 accidents. Another strange thing was that the grains I stored in closed containers were found to have worms and insects even if they are fresh and I would end up throwing so much of stuff. Then I read somewhere that if the soil is not pure, or if the earth beneath the compound is not clean enough it affects your life badly. The worms in food items were an indication of that it seems. I was not a believer of all these. But it is experience that make you believe.
I no longer wanted to stay there. My husband was also like 'enough is enough'. We said bye-bye to the award winning panchayat after a mere 9 month's stay there.
The house we saw in Pragathi Nagar was an independent duplex house in a gated community of 30 neighbors. The resemblance of our houses in Kerala and the sight of a small soil compound attached to the house tempted us to finalise that house. I used to feel sorry for what my son was missing for being brought up in apartments when we had our childhood so free in air, soil, mud and water. This small piece of bare soil made me happy as my son could play with it as we did in our childhood. It was a neatly maintained community and was gate watched. The house was not occupied by anyone else before. The sight from the kitchen windows and the bedroom balcony was so nice like a painted scenery. Little did we know of the problems we were going to face at the time of finalizing the deal with the house owner.
The night after the first day in the new house we realised that we are sharing this house with some others. Some others meant a million others. 1 million mosquitoes! Advantage no: 1 of having a big beautiful lake next to your residence. We partially solved the issue by fixing mosquito nets on all the windows. But the dream of spending easy evenings in the society's gardens outside the house turned out to be a fanciful one. We neither wanted to be seen with elephant legs nor to end up in hospital with dengue fever.
The first day morning in the house I realised that the scenery of the small green rocky hills from the kitchen window in the morning had special appearance of artists performing their morning pooja with a cup of water. I knew about the labor colony at the base of that hill but never imagined they had this mass pooja performed behind the small rocks and bushes on the hill. Yes, convenient for them - fresh air, abundant fresh water in the lake - such a relief. They must be singing the film song aa aa..aa aa aaja.. piya tu ab to aaja.. I was sure, indeed in relief. I never opened the kitchen window again.
Soon we realised that the promised 24 hours bore well water supply was not valid for summer. Society made it clear that they would release water only from June or July that too as per the availability of ground water. Did they expect us to wait for 2 or 3 months to take bath as they do? We had to start depending on water tankers. That became an additional expense and an added head ache to call them, wait for them, watch them not stealing water from our tanker and sell it to someone else.
I have to say that my son enjoyed playing outside and started digging the soil, filling the well he made with water (that we buy for a price) and molding different shapes with mud. We were happy for him, till the monsoons. We were happy to see the monsoon nearing so that our water tanker events could come to a halt. But the monsoons brought us new guests at home. They appeared from nowhere and scared us. The small hill top that we were staying was recently developed prior to which it was a rocky bushy jungle. The locals were not so happy for the new occupants and they had not left the place. They were hiding till then and came out to enjoy the rains. My son's play in the garden was then stopped. After all the water snakes and scorpions were not so fun to be with.
From then onwards everything was a problem. Or we felt so. The road from this panchayat to the main road was so broken that it made the commute very difficult. The original road to the main junction was so broken that we had to take an alternate route which added another 15 minutes to the journey. I had 2 accidents with my 2 wheeler both the times I was nicely injured. As if the gutters are not enough they had speed breakers every 200 meters. Our 4 wheeler had to get serviced twice. The panchayat roads were all cement roads, not black top tar roads which made them very very dusty. How come we did not notice all these before the decision was made? I told you that lake, like an appealing slut with her charming smile invited us and we were trapped.
The panchayat being an award winning one they were not selling any alcohol. Leave alone liquor or anything alcoholic, even fizzy drinks like Coke, Pepsi etc were also not sold in shops. Though this did not particularly bothered me, it was the prime reason for my husband to find the place as 'not livable'. Most of the people in this village were not speaking anything other than Telugu made our problems to double it. Those days how I missed the 1 pm Sunday doordarsan news(for the hearing impaired)! The housing colony that we stayed had many houses vacant. Among those who occupied more than half of the house wives were also Telugu only-s. (Though the husbands are all placed in MNCs) This limited my interaction with the neighbors .
If you dislike something , the more and more you start finding faults with it. Same happened to us with Pargathi nagar. We started feeling that there was something wrong with the house. Someone or the other at home was always sick. To add to that I had 2 accidents. Another strange thing was that the grains I stored in closed containers were found to have worms and insects even if they are fresh and I would end up throwing so much of stuff. Then I read somewhere that if the soil is not pure, or if the earth beneath the compound is not clean enough it affects your life badly. The worms in food items were an indication of that it seems. I was not a believer of all these. But it is experience that make you believe.
I no longer wanted to stay there. My husband was also like 'enough is enough'. We said bye-bye to the award winning panchayat after a mere 9 month's stay there.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A letter to Reddy
Respected Mr P.S.Reddy Sir,
I am very sorry that I talked to you in a rash manner the other day, Sir. I had no clue about how much it was going to hurt your infant heart. I should have kept my silly feelings to myself rather than disturbing you. I really forgot that those are so silly that anybody would get pissed off if one gets reminded of them continuously. After all there is a limit to eat one's brain na.. I just paid 18 lakhs to you and bought an apartment from you. I know that it doesn't mean that I can disturb you when you are not handing over that to me on time. When we were about to finalise the deal you promised me that the apartment would be ready in 3 months. Then later after 2 months when we were writing the agreement at the register office your people and your big brother told me not to worry, the flat would be ready in 3 months. I know... I understand your problems sir.. This assembly election.. I know how your workers were excited about that. The entire group went for election campaign. Then they took a week's break for casting their vote, for they had to leave for their native places. Yes yes we should respect their right to caste the vote. We then took a vacation in Kerala and when we came back you said it would be ready in 3 months. I know.. Who will better understand your problems friend? This festival. Dasara and Karthika Masam are most important for your workers and we need to let them go and enjoy. After all employee satisfaction should be our first preference. Then a delay of another month because of the Ganesh Puja preparations etc. Without God's will and blessings whatever we perform will go waste. Everybody know that.
Again after couple of weeks when we noticed that there was no progress of any sort when we visited the site, it would have been appropriate to think from my side that it was natural. Because of the series of very serious issues like the Chief Minister’s unfortunate accident and death and the complex political situations that succeeded which worker will be in a mood to do unimportant works? Nobody, when there prevails such an indefinite situation in the core group that drives the state's progress. But fool me didn’t think of all these as already 6 months were over. The EMI of Rs.20k + the rent of 10K were putting big burden on our financial matters and that was the reason I asked you to tell me an exact date on which you were going to hand over the flat to me instead of keeping the 3 months story going on and on.
Then you said "From today exactly 2 months".
Then I asked you if I can take your words for sure and go ahead to talk with my present house owner regarding our vacating the house.
Then you said "Yes. Please. Except the lift rest of the work will be done and you can occupy the apartment".
As ours is in the first floor we really didn't bother about the lift and happily talked to house owner that on Nov30th we would vacate the house. You also gave us your nephew's contact number and asked us to contact him for any further issues. We contacted him to talk about the design of tiles we want to have in the bath rooms and he sounded very polite and decent over the phone. He said he was going to purchase the tiles and all on that Monday. After all, all builders are good hearted!
Last weekend we went to the site and in the bathrooms what we saw was the same ugly artwork which we’ve been seeing ever since we bought the flat from you, done by one of the plastering worker and not the tiles. Not even any sign of anyone worked there for the last one month. It really bothered us as we were nearing the deadline given at the present house. When we immediately called and talked to your nephew we came to know that the procurement of items had not started yet.
I am sorry buddy that is the reason I had to call you up in your cell number and had to talk to you rashly.
And alas!
Very confidently you denied that you had assured me the occupancy in 2 months. That made me to say that "We have given you due respect thinking that you are a gentle man, but now you are proving that you are not. If you can't keep your words what is the use if you go to SabariMala (You only told us about this when you came to know that we are basically Keralites) every year."
My fault. My big fault.
I should have remembered how big a person you are and I am just a small worm in front of you. That's why you said "Don’t try to fight with builders. If I want to threaten anybody in Andhra Pradesh, I can do that. No one is going to ask me" just to make me understand a worm's life can be ended any time when it stays just a foot away from a giant. Then you continued “Don’t call me again” and disconnected the call. I really got frightened buddy. I think I even peed in my clothes. That much scared I was as I learned that you are such a BIG man. Because I understood that it costs you just a small movement of the corner of your eye which can ruin my life completely. How I envy you at least in my next birth I want to live a life like you.
Once again by this letter I want to apologize for enquiring you about the progress of the apartment for which we’ve paid a very silly amount of 18 lakhs. Take your time Sir. Take your time till eternity also, we will not ask you. Even I’m going to conduct an awareness programme among people who still think that it is their right to know details about the service or commodity they are paying for.
I am very sorry that I talked to you in a rash manner the other day, Sir. I had no clue about how much it was going to hurt your infant heart. I should have kept my silly feelings to myself rather than disturbing you. I really forgot that those are so silly that anybody would get pissed off if one gets reminded of them continuously. After all there is a limit to eat one's brain na.. I just paid 18 lakhs to you and bought an apartment from you. I know that it doesn't mean that I can disturb you when you are not handing over that to me on time. When we were about to finalise the deal you promised me that the apartment would be ready in 3 months. Then later after 2 months when we were writing the agreement at the register office your people and your big brother told me not to worry, the flat would be ready in 3 months. I know... I understand your problems sir.. This assembly election.. I know how your workers were excited about that. The entire group went for election campaign. Then they took a week's break for casting their vote, for they had to leave for their native places. Yes yes we should respect their right to caste the vote. We then took a vacation in Kerala and when we came back you said it would be ready in 3 months. I know.. Who will better understand your problems friend? This festival. Dasara and Karthika Masam are most important for your workers and we need to let them go and enjoy. After all employee satisfaction should be our first preference. Then a delay of another month because of the Ganesh Puja preparations etc. Without God's will and blessings whatever we perform will go waste. Everybody know that.
Again after couple of weeks when we noticed that there was no progress of any sort when we visited the site, it would have been appropriate to think from my side that it was natural. Because of the series of very serious issues like the Chief Minister’s unfortunate accident and death and the complex political situations that succeeded which worker will be in a mood to do unimportant works? Nobody, when there prevails such an indefinite situation in the core group that drives the state's progress. But fool me didn’t think of all these as already 6 months were over. The EMI of Rs.20k + the rent of 10K were putting big burden on our financial matters and that was the reason I asked you to tell me an exact date on which you were going to hand over the flat to me instead of keeping the 3 months story going on and on.
Then you said "From today exactly 2 months".
Then I asked you if I can take your words for sure and go ahead to talk with my present house owner regarding our vacating the house.
Then you said "Yes. Please. Except the lift rest of the work will be done and you can occupy the apartment".
As ours is in the first floor we really didn't bother about the lift and happily talked to house owner that on Nov30th we would vacate the house. You also gave us your nephew's contact number and asked us to contact him for any further issues. We contacted him to talk about the design of tiles we want to have in the bath rooms and he sounded very polite and decent over the phone. He said he was going to purchase the tiles and all on that Monday. After all, all builders are good hearted!
Last weekend we went to the site and in the bathrooms what we saw was the same ugly artwork which we’ve been seeing ever since we bought the flat from you, done by one of the plastering worker and not the tiles. Not even any sign of anyone worked there for the last one month. It really bothered us as we were nearing the deadline given at the present house. When we immediately called and talked to your nephew we came to know that the procurement of items had not started yet.
I am sorry buddy that is the reason I had to call you up in your cell number and had to talk to you rashly.
And alas!
Very confidently you denied that you had assured me the occupancy in 2 months. That made me to say that "We have given you due respect thinking that you are a gentle man, but now you are proving that you are not. If you can't keep your words what is the use if you go to SabariMala (You only told us about this when you came to know that we are basically Keralites) every year."
My fault. My big fault.
I should have remembered how big a person you are and I am just a small worm in front of you. That's why you said "Don’t try to fight with builders. If I want to threaten anybody in Andhra Pradesh, I can do that. No one is going to ask me" just to make me understand a worm's life can be ended any time when it stays just a foot away from a giant. Then you continued “Don’t call me again” and disconnected the call. I really got frightened buddy. I think I even peed in my clothes. That much scared I was as I learned that you are such a BIG man. Because I understood that it costs you just a small movement of the corner of your eye which can ruin my life completely. How I envy you at least in my next birth I want to live a life like you.
Once again by this letter I want to apologize for enquiring you about the progress of the apartment for which we’ve paid a very silly amount of 18 lakhs. Take your time Sir. Take your time till eternity also, we will not ask you. Even I’m going to conduct an awareness programme among people who still think that it is their right to know details about the service or commodity they are paying for.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
I here by swear that...
Today, I have decided that...
* I will learn all possible bad words in hindi. It is a "Must have" in a driver's possessions.
* I will always wear helmet while riding a two wheeler.
* I will always stop and give way to a vehicle who tries a U turn in a busy road.
* I will always stop for pedestrians in a zebra crossing.
* I will not stop for pedestrians when the signal is green. I will use my Hindi knowledge here.
* I will not be impatient and honk at the vehicle that moves slow in front of me.
* I will not jump the red signal how much ever empty the opposite roads are.
* I will not change lanes or take to the side without proper indication. I will use my Hindi for those who does so infront of me.
* I will not overtake in a narrow road or when there is a jam in one lane of the traffic. I will use my Hindi for those who does so. I am not a fool to wait at the tail of long queue of vehicles when others can go forward through the empty other lane which makes both the sides jam soon.
* I will not block the way by driving too slow.
* I will not use high beams when in city.
* I will respect the vision of the opposite vehicle's driver by giving a dim light at night while on a highway.
* I will not suddenly start the parked vehicle on the side of the road and get on to the road without minding the vehicles coming from rear. Hindi to be used here.
* I will not use mobile phone while driving.
* I will not let my clothes fly like a flag while riding two wheelers.
Because, these habits of other fellow drivers annoy me a lot!
Patience has its own limits! The commute to and from Hitec City to pragathi nagar has helped me to cross mine this soon so succesfully. Thanks to my dear fellow commuters.
* I will learn all possible bad words in hindi. It is a "Must have" in a driver's possessions.
* I will always wear helmet while riding a two wheeler.
* I will always stop and give way to a vehicle who tries a U turn in a busy road.
* I will always stop for pedestrians in a zebra crossing.
* I will not stop for pedestrians when the signal is green. I will use my Hindi knowledge here.
* I will not be impatient and honk at the vehicle that moves slow in front of me.
* I will not jump the red signal how much ever empty the opposite roads are.
* I will not change lanes or take to the side without proper indication. I will use my Hindi for those who does so infront of me.
* I will not overtake in a narrow road or when there is a jam in one lane of the traffic. I will use my Hindi for those who does so. I am not a fool to wait at the tail of long queue of vehicles when others can go forward through the empty other lane which makes both the sides jam soon.
* I will not block the way by driving too slow.
* I will not use high beams when in city.
* I will respect the vision of the opposite vehicle's driver by giving a dim light at night while on a highway.
* I will not suddenly start the parked vehicle on the side of the road and get on to the road without minding the vehicles coming from rear. Hindi to be used here.
* I will not use mobile phone while driving.
* I will not let my clothes fly like a flag while riding two wheelers.
Because, these habits of other fellow drivers annoy me a lot!
Patience has its own limits! The commute to and from Hitec City to pragathi nagar has helped me to cross mine this soon so succesfully. Thanks to my dear fellow commuters.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Happy Ever After!
We have this custom of seeking blessings from everyone in the family on any special occasions in life. Especially from elders, you should bend and touch the feet of the person and they would bless you by keeping both palms on your head. On their marriage day a typical Kerala bride will weigh atleast 10 kilograms extra with the heavy brocaded saree, a load of awkward jewellery which is a must in Kerala traditional weddings, and a heavy load of deceiving (artificial)long hair and flowers and half a kilogram of hair pins to fix all these scraps together. I still remember how difficult it was to bend before all the uncles, aunties, ammumma’s and appuppans including that Pappu uncle, this Ammini aunty, this Raman uncle, that Janaki aunty and who not? Bending, be straight and again bending, be straight is such a difficult task that too in the brides attire and all we’re doing this is just to be blessed by them. You don't want to spare anybody's blessing when you step into a new phase in life.
I thought everyone would want it in the same way, that is to get blessed by others on their wedding day. I didn’t know that there are people who likes to be cursed on their most important day of life till I started living in Sikh Village. This is the place I’ve been living for the last 5 years and one special thing about this place is that it has a number of function halls. Within a radius of 3 kms, atleast 10 huge function halls are there where the daily rental charges are also as huge as the halls. Most of the halls are adjacent to each other and thus fall in a row. Marriages happen almost all days through the year in all these function halls.(Except some marriage-forbidden months like “Ashadam” normally during July-August) The decorations at the entrance itself is a must-see stuff and 2 ordinary marriages can be done in the expense of that alone.
Though the entire stretch of function halls is equipped with a pretty good parking space as the number of cars each wedding sees is so huge, the space would never be sufficient to accommodate all of them. Every day after 7 p.m it is a traffic jam with the “overflow” of parked cars on either side of the road. Everyone wants to park right in front of the venue because they think that walking a few steps would spoil the neatly draped sarees. So would it spoil the costly make-up layer too by sweating it out.
People who are on their way back to home after a long day’s work starts cursing the marriage party when they get stuck in this traffic jam. Adding oil to the fire is when there is a VIP attending the function. The entire traffic will be stopped by the police till the VIP is taken into the hall and seated comfortably. When people somehow manage to get out of this traffic maze, alas! there comes the next. The "Horse Show". The bridegroom is sitting on the traditionally decorated horse. He is sitting there, responding with a blushing smile to the double and triple X-ed comments from the crowd around him which includes friends,cousins and all those little nieces and nephews.
As if not enough, people who are impatiently waiting for the horse procession to pass by will have to suffer the ear breaking hindi fast numbers played by the band team. One will not even mind to kill the person who invented bass drums and clarinets at that time if given a chance. Somehow when the band team passes by you think the trouble is over. No way, here comes the next team who will en-“lighten” you with petrol lights (modern hurricane lamps). They are in hundreds. Depending on your Ghoda-walla’s financial status there can be more too. You will have to wait till the marriage procession proceeding to the marriage hall to make the road clear.
When it proceeds our groom occasionally looks around at the traffic that has come to a standstill all because of him. Then you notice the pride and pleasure in the face of the idiot. He should be so proud that he has ‘made’ so many people’s evening by giving them a chance to see him sitting on a coughing horse and they have all showered their blessings on him! Phewwww! My dear son, you have gained the heartiest curses from hundreds of people which is sufficient for your lifetime.
Some how you reach home 2 hours late though you were just 5 minutes away from home. Prepare food, eat, feed the baby, somehow manage to put the baby into sleep, do your dishes, close the kitchen and go to bed. You are catching up sleep slowly. Zzzzz....
Suddenly!!! TAPP,TAP, TOOOOO!,TAPATATATATAP…^%$$%$#$#$%%$^&%&^.
You would jump from the bed suddenly and you have been woken up to a big bang.. and the baby starts screaming and he would not stop. No baba, it’s not an earth quake or anything. Our ghoda walla just got married at this strange hours in the night and he does want to let the world know and wants the world to sing a merry song for him jumping in joy! What bullshit! You not only curse them but you tend to curse their ancestors too. The firework goes on for minimum 10 minutes and the entire neighbourhood is now awake. Some are trying to console the crying babies, some consoles the bedridden patients or old people in their homes who managed to get some sleep just minutes back.
And?
And the couple lived happily ever after with all our “BLESSINGS” they got on their wedding day!!
Note: I’m not making any point here to avoid celebrations for weddings or whatever. But one can be considerate about others when things of this sort is being arranged right in the middle of the city.
I thought everyone would want it in the same way, that is to get blessed by others on their wedding day. I didn’t know that there are people who likes to be cursed on their most important day of life till I started living in Sikh Village. This is the place I’ve been living for the last 5 years and one special thing about this place is that it has a number of function halls. Within a radius of 3 kms, atleast 10 huge function halls are there where the daily rental charges are also as huge as the halls. Most of the halls are adjacent to each other and thus fall in a row. Marriages happen almost all days through the year in all these function halls.(Except some marriage-forbidden months like “Ashadam” normally during July-August) The decorations at the entrance itself is a must-see stuff and 2 ordinary marriages can be done in the expense of that alone.
Though the entire stretch of function halls is equipped with a pretty good parking space as the number of cars each wedding sees is so huge, the space would never be sufficient to accommodate all of them. Every day after 7 p.m it is a traffic jam with the “overflow” of parked cars on either side of the road. Everyone wants to park right in front of the venue because they think that walking a few steps would spoil the neatly draped sarees. So would it spoil the costly make-up layer too by sweating it out.
People who are on their way back to home after a long day’s work starts cursing the marriage party when they get stuck in this traffic jam. Adding oil to the fire is when there is a VIP attending the function. The entire traffic will be stopped by the police till the VIP is taken into the hall and seated comfortably. When people somehow manage to get out of this traffic maze, alas! there comes the next. The "Horse Show". The bridegroom is sitting on the traditionally decorated horse. He is sitting there, responding with a blushing smile to the double and triple X-ed comments from the crowd around him which includes friends,cousins and all those little nieces and nephews.
As if not enough, people who are impatiently waiting for the horse procession to pass by will have to suffer the ear breaking hindi fast numbers played by the band team. One will not even mind to kill the person who invented bass drums and clarinets at that time if given a chance. Somehow when the band team passes by you think the trouble is over. No way, here comes the next team who will en-“lighten” you with petrol lights (modern hurricane lamps). They are in hundreds. Depending on your Ghoda-walla’s financial status there can be more too. You will have to wait till the marriage procession proceeding to the marriage hall to make the road clear.
When it proceeds our groom occasionally looks around at the traffic that has come to a standstill all because of him. Then you notice the pride and pleasure in the face of the idiot. He should be so proud that he has ‘made’ so many people’s evening by giving them a chance to see him sitting on a coughing horse and they have all showered their blessings on him! Phewwww! My dear son, you have gained the heartiest curses from hundreds of people which is sufficient for your lifetime.
Some how you reach home 2 hours late though you were just 5 minutes away from home. Prepare food, eat, feed the baby, somehow manage to put the baby into sleep, do your dishes, close the kitchen and go to bed. You are catching up sleep slowly. Zzzzz....
Suddenly!!! TAPP,TAP, TOOOOO!,TAPATATATATAP…^%$$%$#$#$%%$^&%&^.
You would jump from the bed suddenly and you have been woken up to a big bang.. and the baby starts screaming and he would not stop. No baba, it’s not an earth quake or anything. Our ghoda walla just got married at this strange hours in the night and he does want to let the world know and wants the world to sing a merry song for him jumping in joy! What bullshit! You not only curse them but you tend to curse their ancestors too. The firework goes on for minimum 10 minutes and the entire neighbourhood is now awake. Some are trying to console the crying babies, some consoles the bedridden patients or old people in their homes who managed to get some sleep just minutes back.
And?
And the couple lived happily ever after with all our “BLESSINGS” they got on their wedding day!!
Note: I’m not making any point here to avoid celebrations for weddings or whatever. But one can be considerate about others when things of this sort is being arranged right in the middle of the city.
Friday, August 22, 2008
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.
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.
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Kunju
