Hyderabad

Traveled to Hyderabad for a day and a half. My observation about my traveland stay in this city spanning last 20 years or so.

1980
Traveled by Luxury bus( sic), high pitched volume of TV withVCP ( VHS ),hoping, praying that I will have a nice frill sitting next to me and that I can spin out a yarn about my corporate life, my disc life, my plans as to how I am going to take over companies etc. etc. I end up having one Ramulu or Hanumantha Rao, who will out snore the volume of TV blaring Mr.Natwarlal.

My mother would insist that I carry water bottle, idly with mulugapudi.Vazhi la laam chapdade
City was dusty and dirty, looked like our Sewri or Masjid Bunder. There were huge posters of NTR and few others who all looked alike, bada badagaal, big thick mooch, hair set like nest.

1985
Traveled by 2nd AC, would have told my folks at home that I am going by2nd AC may be 20 times before I embarked on my train journey. Hoping for agreat crowd was thoroughly disappointed to see guys in 40s and 50s, oildripping from their head, opened their tiffen carrier and much to my anguish, paraded their chicken biryani, the stench remained in the cabin till I alighted from the train some 30 hours later. The guys were shopkeeper, who keeps visiting Bombay to buy 'ready made dress'( this term is made in India)

The city was dustier and dirtier. People had developed natural aggression in their speech. I guess, the people of this city were coming to terms with themselves. People then were in great hurry to prove they are no less than chennai and Mumbai wallahas.

1990
Hmm. I flew by Indian Airlines, Middle Aged wonders wrapped around in sarees thinking they are queen of Sheba came in the form of air hostess, heavily painted to cover dark circles around their eyes. Acknowledged only1st class passengers in 40s because they are ' regular' ( which got changed to frequent flyer in 5 years)

Mr. Rao's and Reddy's, in jeans and checkered shirts were around in plenty but they were in their late 20s, on their way back from US of A, just finished a massive project involving software, which I later learned was nothing more than glorified typing job on a 486 PC.

1995
Traveled by Jet, Raos and reddy's were in jeans with designer 'T'shirt, mainly crocodile, laud, heavily accented with their family this time, kids were made to talk so that other passengers can make out that they are actually naturalized Americans, Mrs. Raos and Reddyes were clad in jeans with Kurta, big pottus, mangal shutras paraded and all that 'screaming that though they are settled in US of A, they still are very much Indians. Bislery water was in place. Very Imp.City had no time for guys from Mumbai. They wanted only Delhi dandewallasand phirangi for business. Mumbai guys who used to be their sir ka taaj,whose company was insisted upon till late night, have become a pain fortheir socializing in the evening/late night hours. Actually, My cousin has come from US of A. Sorry dont mind, ha! SIR. ( take a walk, I always wanted to be left alone with my book and my choice of channel).
CITY teek hai, thoda kuch teekh hua. Little cleaner. Better shops andrestaurant. Localites still the same. I used to call it a city ofrickshaws then.

2000Traveled by Jet, this time on a business class ( actually economy was not available). Had a German for a company, my counterpart from my head office. For a typical German that he was, talked about machinery and business throughout 1 hour journey. Did not notice anything about airhostess or fellow passengers.
City was showing signs of changing. People in the city look different, I could see a sign of urgency in all. Lot to be done. Most of them were polite. I was greeted well wherever I went. City surely had changed then I found only young crowd everywhere.

2005/6
WOW Fantastic. Forget about flight. The road from airport to Hotel...fantastic. There were more luxury cars in the city roads. Guys and girls alike look as if they have just spent fortune on themselves from the nearby parlor. Hair well done up, Skin well toned. Designer cloths and all. Looking cool. Nothing heavy. Hey this city has changed alright.

They don't want to impress anyone. City and people here are naturally impressive. Lakhs of girls and boys, work in BPO, IT cos, NOT interested to go abroad. They say it is cool to be here.

Infrastructure at its best and this is only the beginning. 5 years from now, when I go, trust me I will have only great things to say. All this possible with efforts of one politician. Just imagine our country with all 500 MPS and 30 CMs doing their job well.

1966-1970

I was living in Bhandup and shifted to Matunga my family house since 40s. I found myself suddenly amidst lot of strangers. Comfort of known people was taken away, admitted to a school which closely resembled a wedding hall, kalyana mandapam to be more precise. I thought this is one big hall and I have lot of relatives, all tamil speaking people. Teachers many of them, whom by mistake I addressed as Mami. I can’t recall, though whether I got a spanking for that. lunch much to my horror was 3 chappathis folded to precision with potato bhaji rightly centered. This made the centre chappati soiled, which I always threw away, much to disgust of my ‘amma’, nirupa roy of our house. The lunch was to be taken in assembly hall. After the lunch break, the hall would look a mess, few students everyday will have a fall slipping on a banana peel or thayir chadam. I still remember khaki clad man, thick mustache would single handedly clean the floor for PT period to start after 1 hour.

My building was full of people who were speaking strange tongue, which I later came to know as Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, malayalese, kutchees, etc. Guys would pick up fights with me for reasons well known to them I was too proud to talk about it to my folks at home. I was wonderstruck, hating, why I was taken away from Bhandup.

My call for recognition came, when I pulled up a guy for harassing my kid sister. I fought a bitter battle with one Suresh , my good friend for years to follow. Fight then was actually holding each other by neck and roll on the floor till one of the two got tired or got separated by some elder. Boys would discuss in detail, who won or lost. The next day we got together to play showing no signs or knowledge of the fight previous day. My parents for years told me don't get into fight with marathi and gujarathis. I never understood why those days. They were synonymous for being mighty and moneyed, respectively. ( know something, we guys of 77 helped our parents in getting over that ' alien feeling' of mumbai.

I got the due recognition from guys of the gullee, got included in the gang, played cricket , for good 6 months taken as kutcha limbu. My most humiliating experience then and my ambition was to get promoted to pukka limbu group.

My idea of Bambai was the world I was exposed to. All the doors in my floor of my building was always open. We could hide in anyone’s house, if we were playing hide and seek, or thappo or chor police. If any door was closed, we used to actually lock it knock on the door/ring the bell and run away.

My neighbor would bring in dal/kadai in exchange for sambhar/khootu or rasam.
This was a daily ordeal. The pretext was Raju ( my house name) ko acchha lagega. In fact, I never liked the garlic. My bro used to relish it. Our Konkani neighbor not to be undone would bring some thing which we used to religiously put it in the bin. Gosh it used to stink. Best kept secret for years.

Please be explicit in telling me if this is boring. I would write about life of 70s in my next mail, if you guys want me to continue. Such bolu tho, I am writing all those meaningless stuff which were hidden and waiting to be unraveled from some part of my brain.