the other part of town

I took amma to the other part of town today formerly known as that part of town where i grew up, went to school and got married not exactly in that order. Amma gets her pension in a bank near our old house... we had to go there for some paperwork. then to the post office because the last time there was a discrepancy in the account balance. This was over a year ago and so I managed to go and get it fixed.

what struck me today... how far removed from that life I now am. Walk into a nationalised bank and there are oceans of people. young, old and relatively poor. they stand in lines, they look forlorn and desperate, they are spoken to rudely and need someone else to fill in their forms. the bank officers treat them like flies, they bark at them and do so much of redundant paper work its not funny. We needed a bank account statement for 4 years for amma. I was sent to 4 different counters before I was pointed to the right place. I realise that my jeans and kurti and relatively young and educated persona got my work done in a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken. the guy who was printing the statement took 45 minutes to do it. not becuase he didnt want to, but i realised (as i was standing by his side) that he had no clue how to operate the banking software! he kept feeding in the wrong details and making mistakes because he was choosing the wrong options. such is the state of the computer literacy of our banking officials. Having only dealt with citibank before, where things get done in a single window system this was so irritating. If you need to submit an application or get a statement or any other non money transactional work done, you just queue up to a single person who will take care of everything. So the number of papers, vouchers, bank account books and signatures required today boggled me. Ditto at the post office. The lady at the counter asked me to fill in some forms, i couldnt make head or tail of the archaic language that was printed on it.... plus she kept mumbling instructions and i had to ask about 4 times till i was clear.

we had lunch at a friend's place and then came home. Picking up biryani for K on the way. The roads, the people, the shops .... nothing has changed. What has changed is that i have moved... to a newer cleaner more orderly part of town. Ofcourse we pay 45 bucks for a kilo of rice when my friend served me superfine sona masoori rice he gets for Rs. 28! so we do pay a lot of invisible taxes!

I love the feel of the old hyderabad that i grew up in for sure.... am not so certain i could go back and live there tho....

pathetic state of roads in hyderabad

its been a wet wet weekend....the slush outside the apartment has reached mamoth proportions and the state of the roads in Hyderabad is really to be seen to be believed. the apathy and the sheer callousness of an administration that simply doesnt give a damn for the people is something that left me with a mouth wide open in shock. i cant think of a single road today that is devoid of a ditch with tar and rubble coming out of it due to the substandard quality of the roadwork to begin with. last evening, we drove from kondapur to begumpet, no more than 500 metres, that too on the erstwhile CM's camp office stretch was the only patch that was smooth and ditch free. Even the flyover in front of nagarjuna hills, which takes you over the punjagutta crossroads (the same one that collapsed and killed a few people a couple of years earlier) is full of portholes. Can you imagine ditches on a flyover?

While the state administration and the Municipal Commissioner are busy attending page 3 parties, the whole network of roads in hyderabad is rapidly beginning to resemble the craters of the moon. Only in this case, we dont admire its beauty from afar. At certain points, like behind shopper's stop in begumpet, when you drive, you wonder if it is supposed to be a city road, or some cross country ditch rally. 

imagine if this is the state of affairs in the cities, in the hitech part of the state, what is the state of affairs in the towns and villages, the people who actually vote and elect these people. I cant help but think of the kind of civic upkeep that happened during chandra babu naidu's time. it was very common for out of state visitors to immediately remark about the fabulous roads we had. that was the first impression people got of this place....i couldnt help thinking how callous this congress government is.....i recall a similar state of affairs each time the congress has been in power. naidu on his part, has proved to be one of the most ineffective opposition leaders of all time. 

After the death of ysr, its like things are chugging along in status-quo the roads went from great to good and towards the end of his life, bad...and after he died and the turmoil in the state politics took over, its gone from bad to really terrible....it was common to see heaps of uncleared rubbish spilling over from bins.....cops being absent where traffic regulation was essential, and only seen challaning people, traffic sense has gone from bad to really unbearable with no fear of the administration or any sense of discipline...and this state of affairs seems to be the last nail in the coffin.

sleepless again

its monday...it's appa's star b'day...i hope i remember to call and wish him....happiness, health and peace above all....

its 1:30 a.m and i am unable to sleep....courtesy the longish nap i took hidden under the razai with the a/c on....had a restful day today...woke late... opened the door for renuka and devi and went back to sleep...i think i babbled something about mango dal and rice....she made steamed and sauteed raw plantains too...which i had after i woke and brushed...around 11.30 a.m in true (pseudo in my case) brahminical style...cos the idlies and multi dal dosa looked so meh!! K woke up a little later and with a few morsels out of my plate declared he was ditching the idlies too....

the people on the top floor were hitting and banging and hammering...and making such a din... i think some carpentry or something, but the noise of the electric saw is so agonisingly annoying that i didnt know what to do....imagine sleeping thru that noise!! K went upstairs to tell them the friction caused cracks on our ceiling, they came down to inspect and finally took the hammering downstairs... go piss someone else off and screw their sunday afternoon....

i had a bath and tried to sleep... K is like a child with an exciting new book...cant blame him, its my diary from '98!! The part of my life he asks me again and again of...the year i went to PSG...so intermittently he would ask me why i wrote something or who someone was...i cant remember a lot of them...some of the names enterred there are still a part of my life in some way.... i think i should start writing everyday again...if not anything it makes for a nice reflection of what your life was in the past....

i felt hungry again at 1 and no way was going to eat those damned idlies..so indian chinese from punjabi rasoi...they were rather (surprisingly) disappointing today... but noodles are noodles and so i fed myself and K...napped till 6 and felt so much better (that time of the month....bloody pain in the wrong place), chai on the balcony with K after ages...

we headed out...just the both of us after many months...to pantaloons..i wanted a block printed pj...they didnt have it in my size...so picked a plain ochre kurta and patiala salwar and dupatta set, one kurti from lee cooper and 3 t shirts...then to levis for K's jeans... they have a real groovy store in JH....we wanted to check out hall of fame...the new sports lounge... it was full...and full of snob rreal estate funded boys ..  its now the new place to hang out... typical hyderabadi mentality...this will be the next best thing for the next 2 months...for some reason they were discouraging couples!! refreshing for the boys i guess!! we wondered where else to go... idlies in the casserole be damned!! just thinking that we never used to take so much time to decide where to go...we landed up at senor pepe's opp KBR park...they do decent tex mex...we had an assorted platter of  nachos...some fried spring roll type of thing and quesadilla ...large portions with sour cream and salsa...so we ordered one fettucine pasta dish for the both of us to share...which was very very disappointing....back home...i wanted to sleep before 11.30....K wanted to talk...he read me my old love letters...the emails i wrote to him.....i cant believe i wrote that well.....:) with all that....he chased my sleep away...w hich brings me to the present...we're both awake... him watching something on tv (the first its been switched on this week) and i am typing away...do you think i can force myself to sleep? i must try it...

loads to do tmrw...i need to finish two meetings and swing some business my way.... i think i will like doing it...may spend some time in office as well...

its been a good weekend....i am thankful for it...now to force myself to sleep...goodnight!

power or the illusion of it

YSR perished in a helicopter accident. sometime day before yesterday. it took more than 24 hrs to locate the wreckage and declare that there aren't any survivors. the State went into mourning and tho everyone expected mayhem on the streets owing also to the ganesh immersion which is usually a security nightmare, everything seemed to be ok. the political lobbying to install his son as the next CM has begun fullscale....

the man who had a strangle hold on the state and no succession plan (other than aspirations for his son) has left everyone completely shocked. its one thing to have everything under control.... its another thing that the next 100 people under you have no clue what they should do next.

while the media circus goes on, i think of a few things people may call inconsequential..... the mightiest, most charismatic, powerful guy went missing and no one had any clue for hours together of the whereabouts. in this day and age of technological advancements, this is pretty shocking. as a country we have no contingency plans, no process or drills for emergencies, no one knows who is in control, i wonder if anyone is. Crowds in india are a nightmare. Add to this a few hundered television camera crews and the nightmare becomes a walt disney scale 3 D gargantuan shinding.

the family didn't have the time to mourn. they didn't even get their few minutes with their loved one or whatever remained of him. they've had to hide their sorrow and put on a brave public show. this is the lot of all people in public offices. is this what they sign up for the day they choose this space?

the circus now has turned full circle. i wrote this 2 days ago and yesterday was horrified to see the images of the total chaos at the funeral. many a times it was a miracle that his coffin didnt just fall on the ground. people are firmly rooting for his son to be installed as the next CM. i wonder how far this movie will play out... just need to wait and watch. they're anyways going to put up a grand show.

i went shopping

i've had a wonderfully tiring day in a long while.... not since my himalayan trek have i felt this way!! Amma leaves on a jet plane tomorrow. back to the arms of her grand daughter. after feeling very guilty that i havent been able to take her shopping as we always do, we set out this afternoon.... by the time K and i moved our lazy asses from home it was noon!!

First stop was the GVK One mall in banjara hills. it is huge no doubt, but somehow lacks the persona i'd have expected from a building of this magnitude....on a weekend, was crowded and we had the most obnoxious bunch of rowdy teens for company in the lift which went up and down a few times before we could get off on the right floor. We headed straight to the Triumph store who were having an upto 70% sale. funny, what you really want to buy will never be on sale! anyways, i managed to find something i really liked and then we headed to Shopper's Stop...picked up a few gifts for my niece. Headed over to City Centre Mall where i wanted to have "good" chinese food so we headed to aromas of china. i really get pissed with unruly and ill behaved kids in public places. and cant for the life of me understand why parents stand around without correcting their behaviour. its almost a style statement now to have a bratty ill tempered child in tow (and hey, the excuse of "where else will they leave them" doesnt apply. Leave them at home...and you stay with them too). since all that fab food around me was calming my nerves, i managed to have lunch without losing my temper. the servings are really large and so we have dinner also packed and ready!!

once fed and full filled, we headed to the wellspun showroom downstairs that had a sale and i picked up some much needed fluffy bath towels at a throwaway price. K wanted to make the customary stop at crosswords, but once we reached there he got claustrophobic with the crowds and wanted to leave. i stayed in a line forever to get the book and cd i picked up for rachel billed. the next part was the envisioned nightmare! driving into ameerpet,, to get some cartoon / animal printed sheets for rachel's baby cot. we couldn't find anything satisfactory in the malls, so we decided the regular stores would be a better bet. K was dreading this, but thankfully it wasn't as bad as he would have liked (so he could crib afterwards). we went to my favourite shop for all seasons, Narsingh. its amazing!! the variety that these Mom and Pop stores have. they are minus the frills and hence can pass on the price benefit to the customer. this guy sells everything from fabric to readymades, linen and towels and you name it and he has it. he has 6 stores and together must be doing better business than a high end super store.

finally waded through traffic in the main bazar leading to our place, because tomorrow being ganesh chaturthi, vendors were selling all the stuff needed for the pooja and got back home. to have dear uncle and aunty P and N waiting to see amma before she leaves. nothing like a cup of hot chai to refresh us. and we aren't a garrulous family for nothing!! i am just so happy with the way today turned out that i came here to type!! i'd better go now to help amma pack all the stuff she has accumulated. nothing like some good ole retail therapy to cheer me up... yesterday i was under the weather.... now i feel great!!

on shaky ground....

there was an sms alert my colleague got at 5 pm today…it said there was a shooting that took place in Hyderabad, while investigating with regard to the Bombay Terror attacks, an Ex SIMI activist, shot at the constable and a red alert has been sounded in hyderabad. As soon as we heard this, I checked online to find this….i informed K and left for home immediately…..

now safe in the confines of my home, I type this to say, I had a shaky few moments………not knowing what this was….exaggeration or the truth, or the look of things to follow, I was only too happy to drive back home…..last night, it took me a few seconds to compose myself, before u got out of bed to go to the bathroom….iamgining people holed up there, some amidst dead people, hiding at the Taj so that the terrorist would miss them, is a constant vision I imagine…..

I don’t like it…and I tell myself I am being unreasonable….i wasn’t even in the same city as what happened…it doesn’t seem to help…..i don’t know if I should feel silly about my eagerness to return to the safety of home, or relief that nothing happened, or what…..no false bravado here anyways….

bomb blasts

Hyderabad is reeling under the blasts which took place loast evening at Lumbini Park (a major tourist attraction) and Gokul Chaat (another packed place because it is the best place for chaat in hyd)……I was blissfully unaware and only a frantic phone call from appa appraised me of what had happened….K was on his way back home and he too got a similar call, he was on his way back and not too far from home so I was relieved…..called some friends and checked on their whereabouts…….

I switched on the TV, to see what was going on……. The targets of both the places were extremely public….it was the weekend, and hardly any security……I mean these days guards are there more to open doors and issue baggage tokens….i doubt if both lumbini park and gokul had any kind of security in place…..the cops are saying that gokul could be a gas cylinder blast….that’s where several people died……the place is always packed and supposed to be the best place for chaat…its very popular with college kids and is in one of the busiest shopping areas in Hyderabad……

They’re still trying to figure out the number of people who lost their lives…i’m skeptical of the ‘official’ figures and what the news channels are saying….also cant get over how all these news channels showed uncensored footage of the blast sites, it was like a blood and gore show…I have nothing against it, but for some dignity to those who lost their lives…..where is your responsible journalism?? as expected, instead of pooling resources to provide relief – fast and effective, our politicians were busy settling scores and making statements…..

It’s the most traumatic thing for the families of those who lost their loved ones……I just hope they are able to complete the tedious formalities, get closure and grieve in private….my heart goes out to them……