Stand Together

Living in the suburbs of Hyderabad has its share of blessings. One such blessing, being able to take long walks on rugged roads surrounded by farmlands. Every time I go for one such walk early in the morning or late in the evening an old farmer, dressed in his Earth soiled dhoti, kurta and turban turns up out of nowhere surprising me. He walks along with me for a few minutes always asking me about my lunch, about how my day was and where I was going. I knew he was a farmer but some how to me he never seemed real as he would suddenly appear out of nowhere. A few days ago, I was walking home in the rain and I met him again. He asked for the time and suggested that I buy an umbrella as these rains are not good. This morning at 6:00AM, walking under the street lights, under the trees in the furious rain I see a ghostly figure walking towards me with a huge plastic bag over his head. It is the ghostly farmer again. He notices me and decides to walk back with me. He was very cheerful in the ...

So it is another Friday afternoon. I and my friend, Srinardhani excitedly leave office to have lunch. Venue: the food court, DLF Cybercity, Hyderabad. As always there are lesser number of tables than there are people. Srinardhani is not too hungry and I headed over to Sun and Moon (one of the smaller food joints) to get my lunch and we find a table in front of Motherboard, another eating joint run by Sri Hospitality & Ventures Pvt Ltd which also runs the Blue Ray chain of restaurants. Now the practice so far at the DLF food court has been that anyone can sit anywhere no matter from which joint they have bought their food. I can eat a Domino's pizza in front of Motherboard and I can eat a dosa, bought at Motherboard in front of Pink Elephant. As an employee working in the grand SEZ building I can sit anywhere I like. Rules change, Motherboard, since this afternoon does not want to entertain people buying their food elsewhere at their tables. Since it is a business it is totally ...

KFC!! One of the most popular fast food restaurants in the city has customer service that is indeed "finger licking good"! But here is the catch... The KFC joint that I'm writing about is located within the Cinemax multiplex premises at Banajara Hills. Who is serving you there? A bunch of young, REALLY REALLY cheerful, smiling boys in red KFC t-shirts. If you're going there for the first time you wouldn't understand why the person taking your order isn't speaking a word and is instead confirming your order by pointing it out on the menu in front of him and smiling at the same time. If you have understood him correctly and he has understood you clearly you get a very happy "thumbs up" sign from him. All these boys cannot speak nor can hear yet they serve you perfectly without any irritation and arrogance. I've been there multiple times and will keep going there forever though I'm not very fond of chicken. Here is why: The Welcome: One of these...

Sunday is a day that everybody wishes to relax but there are some jobs and responsibilities that cannot be ignored on a holiday. One such responsibility being helping someone in real need. I and my little sister were crossing a road on Sunday afternoon (6th Feb'2011), and we suddenly see from a distance that a man is lying helplessly unconscious on the road in front of a huge lorry. We called the 108 emergency service immediately. (This is an everyday 0ccurance on the roads of Hyderabad.) But what actually shocked us was the attitude of the traffic police. There were two cops directing the traffic there and neither of them stood up from his chair to help the man or bring him on to the pavement. It was when I and my sister tried to lift him up from the middle of the road did two auto drivers help us. The cops still didn't pay any attention. After a few minutes another cop joined them only to stare at us and we glared back at him. Now when we asked why didn't they help the ma...

Yesterday evening while I was returning home from work I saw something of extreme interest. Thought I'd share it. I was in a seven seater mini taxi - This is how it looks.  Imagine this with 20 people inside with at least 3 people hanging outside! Anyways it wasn't so bad  yesterday. It was a smooth ride from ECIL Cross Roads to Nagaram (thats where I live). A few Kilometers down on the journey two girls got in and sat next to me. One of them was holding a green hot pack. It looks something like this.  Okie so the girls got in a sat next to me. One right next to me and the other next to her near the door. So now the interesting piece comes. The girl near the door, to my surprise opened the hot pack! Guess what was inside!!  Nothing and whole lot of things ! The hot pack was open and hollow! There weren't any steel food boxes within as you see in the picture above. In fact, there was money, a phone book, safety pins ( etc) , thats as much as I could peep and see. She had e...

Yesterday during the sermon, Pastor Sandeep flashed a slide which was a news paper article from the Deccan Chronicle with the heading "3 girls are raped every day in Andhra Pradesh". We all know that those are the numbers that the police have. We can't say what the real number is.  As I was going home from church, I was thinking what kind of men would commit such a crime. The answer came to me in the evening when I was returning home from my guitar class. I was in  a fully packed 7 seater auto. This auto has a seating capacity of only 12 people including the driver. But in most cases at all times there are more than 20 people, standing and hanging in these 7 seaters. It so happened that there were all women within the compartment and only one man. This man was drunk and he was breathing down upon me and another girl sitting next to me. We continually asked him to stand straight. He moved a little when we began asking the driver to ask this person the get off.  At the next...

There is something about these old ladies that takes me by surprise. I know one such special lady. She is one of my co-passengers in bus number 572, Secunderabad to Rajapet (Nalgonda), one of the district to district buses. She gets into the bus form the ECIL bus terminus and buys a ticket to Rajapet, the last stop of the bus. She mostly sits next to me and out of curiosity I once  happened to ask her how far Rajapet was. She told me that if she gets a bus at 7 in the evening from ECIL she would reach Rajapet comfortably by 10 pm. Comfortably one long journey! This lady looks uneducated and she is. She looks like any other telugu village woman. An old cotton Sari (unstarched) tied so high that her ankles are clearly visible, a blouse that doesnt match the colour of the Sari, dishevelled white hair, a pair of very heavy gold earrings not taken off for a quarter of a century, no footwear and a walking stick is the best desription I can give of her. One day I asked her about her earrings....