Independence Day

India is celebrating it's 64th Independence Day. Good. Congratulations. But to whom should my wishes be addressed to? Surely, I can't address all the Indians. It's not that I can't, it's because I shouldn't. While browsing casually, I came upon this wonderful pictorial which depicted how different India is for each of its citizens.

Before we plan to celebrate this so-called auspicious day, give it a moment to think about what have we achieved as citizens in this largest democratic country of the world.

• Even after these many years, no female can dare to walk alone on the streets of our capital(even during day time!).
• An old man fighting for a change in the constitution cannot fast for more than three days at a particular place. Ridiculous!!! What's more funny is that he's given permission to take only 5000 supporters into his protest.
• People from a part of a state(mine, sadly) want the other people from other part of the same state to move their asses out of their place. Confusing, right? This is what is called Telangana issue. Imagine, they even started a movement called "Quit Telangana" on the same day this year, when our freedom fighters started "Quit India" movement.
• While Hockey is considered as our national game, no one knows who's the captain of the team. I wonder if at least 10% of the people know how many players are there in a hockey team.
• Aha, how can I miss this? Indian Cricket Team lost their recent test series to England and subsequently the Numero Uno ranking. We lost the No. 1 rank and the media is making a frenzy as if we lost our Independence yet again!!! Come on guys, it's just matter of a few months.
• Now, this one I read somewhere. You can buy and finish off a liquor bottle in broad daylight, but you have to think twice before buying a Valentine's Day greeting card. You don't know which Sena might be waiting for you round the corner.
• US has faced some issues with its economy and the whole world went into turmoil. Because of this, the Indian Rupee went weak!!!! Took a good while for me to analyze and understand this. Are we economically independent?

It is of no surprise that thinking of Independence Day, even though I'm proud of my country and I love my country, all that I remember is those sweet laddoos they used to distribute on this day in my school.

Poor Vaishnavi

It was said that demons used to exist in the past when none of us were born, not us, not our fathers, not even our great-grandfathers. It was also documented that GOD used to take some or the other form to keep things in control and save humankind from these demons. But day-after-day this is proven wrong, again and again. Yesterday, I was sure that the demons are still alive.

Most of you might have heard about the kidnap of a cute little kid, Vaishnavi about 3 or 4 days back. Reports say that this girl, aged 10 years, was traveling in a car with her brother and a driver, when some masked miscreants attacked their vehicle. The driver who tried to tackle them was brutally stabbed and the girl's brother managed to run away. Then the kidnappers took the girl in the same car and deserted the car somewhere far. Everybody, including me, was hoping that the girl will be left alone once they kidnappers get their ransom or some shitty demands. But no demands are made and yesterday, the unthinkable happened. The girl was found dead, in fact her charred body was found.

Sad news is that her father got heart attack twice after hearing the news of his daughter's death yesterday evening and he died today morning.

Reports say that the persons behind this kidnapping are the brothers of the first wife of the kid's father. It was said that they paid 5 million INR to the kidnappers for this brutal deal. Now tell me, are the demons dead? Or they started living in human form? Or is it us who are making ourselves demons for silly issues?

GOD bless the girl's soul. Btw, with all these incidents, I am planning to take up the daring topic of "why should Indian judiciary system change" for my B2 speech in Toastmasters.

2009 or 2010 - we'll never change

Folks, I hope you all had a great New Year Eve. My celebrations were at tKs where I was the only single guy and the rest of the gathering were families. But still, it was fun.

Till 10 PM last night, I wanted to write this post about my icebreaker speech yesterday in Toastmasters club. But after 10 PM, my ideas changed and what I saw on NDTV, shocked me.

Those guys were airing some footage of a rural background where somebody was wounded. I got some interest and started watching it and as I came to know of the whole story, I broke into tears. The story goes on like this:

A sub-inspector(SI) was going to his police station on a two wheeler and suddenly, he was attacked by some miscreants with some crude bombs and sickles. Their plan is to hack him to death, but suddenly they saw that a convoy was approaching them and left the man wounded. The convoy belongs to a couple of ministers of the Tamilnadu state(one was Minister of Health, I suppose) and even a District Collector was with them at that time.

The police who were with the convoy try to chase down the attackers, but they managed to slip away by hurling bombs at the police. The real pathetic story starts from here. This SI who was wounded was literally crying and pleading for help and nobody even went near him. According to the news channel, the District Collector got down from his car after 8 minutes and called for an ambulance. The honorable ministers got down from their vehicles after 20 minutes and did nothing. An ambulance reached the place after some time and on its way to the nearest hospital, the SI succumbed to the injuries. He was crying and pleading the passerby's to help him for about 30 minutes.

The saddest part is that, after basic investigation, the police has stated that this is a case of mistaken identity and as the SI was wearing a helmet, the attackers mistook him for another cop whom they wanted to kill.

After seeing all this, I was wondering why the news channel crew was filming the whole incident without helping the dying man. But promptly, there was a scrolling showing that this video was shot by a freelancer. Let's hope so!

What is the need for us to celebrate a change in calendar, when there's no change in the mindsets of the people? May God bless the dead man's family with its choicest blessings and may people inculcate that helping nature in themselves.

Wicked Whisper: I think that all the people who are present there are as responsible for the man's death as are the attackers. Should we prosecute all of them?

You can click here and here for a couple of videos showing the incident, but beware, they are not for the faint-hearted.
Video courtesy: Times of India.

Cricket n SRK

Being from India, we love cricket and worship cricketers. And sometimes, we like to play too. So, we are participating in a 7-a-side soft-ball tournament here in Bahrain. A total of 60 teams are participating in the tourney and we played our first match last night. We lost it successfully, but at least we did give a tough fight to the opponents(my favs for the title). Batting first, they made a not-so-tough 52 runs in their allotted 6 overs while our side managed a convincing 45 runs in the same number of overs. Well, the nest match is on 28th of this month and wish us all the best.

And now, let's go to a strange issue that raging in some hearts in India. One Mr Shah Rukh Khan(in short SRK) was frisked at an airport in the US of A. Ok, the airport authorities did detain him for a couple of hours and checked his credentials blah blah. The only problem is this SRK guy is a super-star or a Badshah of Bollywood(naah, I'm an Aamir Khan fan). Fans started protesting this act and started burning effigies of the govt of US of A. TV channels started flashing the news of this footage in "exclusive bulletins". Bollywood bigwigs are interviewed, politicians were asked questions and people are made idiots.

But what's the big deal in the airport authorities doing so? Clearly, not everyone knows what Bollywood is or who SRK is. He's just one of those guys traveling through their airport. Is there any point in this whole incident for the entire nation to stand up(or rather sit n watch those stupid news channels broadcasting this)? Aren't there more issues that are bothering the nation?

Just in the past one month, more than 22 farmers committed suicide in the state of Andhra Pradesh courtesy poor rainfall and increasing debts. I saw in a regional news channel yesterday that a farmer set fire to his crop after a very less output(I don't exactly know the term). No one cares about issues like this. All we care is when a celebrity is detained in an airport or a famous cricketer scores a duck or when a politician is making useless comments etc. God save India.

Mangalore Massacre

I hope most of you read or heard about the Mangalore pub incident. For those who didn’t know about that, let me tell you what was reported in the news about that. A group of people, all members of a religious outfit called Sri Ram Sena, stormed a pub in Mangalore and beat up the persons who were partying inside, irrespective of the gender. And some unknown sources also reported that some of the girls were molested too. The reason for the attack as told by the Shri Ram Sena outfit was, these people (who are partying) were violating the rich Indian Culture.

Now, here is a small piece on interview of Pramod Muthalik, the founder of the Shri Ram Sena.

How can you continue to justify the Mangalore incident?
I will always stand by my statement that the intention behind the Mangalore attack was correct and we did nothing wrong in raising this issue.
What is wrong in opposing the pub, drug and club culture? Someone had to raise this issue. We decided to do so as no one else seemed to be bothered about it. We have a responsibility towards society and we need to safeguard Indian culture. Pub culture is Western and we don't need it.

Who has appointed you a moral policeman?
Nobody needs to appoint me. This is a democracy and we have the right to raise our voice if we think something is wrong.

Why do you resort to violence? You have no right to hit anyone, especially women.
I am saddened by the fact that the incident turned violent. There was never an intention to resort to violence. But the reports of attacking women and molesting them are wrong -- they have been created by the media.

Why do you have a problem with people who want to have some fun in a pub?
As I mentioned earlier, pub culture is not Indian and we do not need to ape the West. Girls are resorting to all sorts of rubbish due to lack of guidance. We will continue to raise our voice and will also take the help of law enforcement agencies to ensure that students do not tread the wrong path.

Your answers indicate that there will be more trouble in Karnataka.
There will be no violence, but we will raise our voice. We will not allow Valentine's Day celebration as it is not part of our culture. We will take the help of the police and college students to ensure that nobody celebrates Valentine's Day.

Now, anybody who saw the clippings of the attacks will strongly disagree the way the attack was carried out. The way the girls were bashed made me rethink whether this is India(where females are highly respected) or some other alien nation. In one clipping, a running girl was beaten hard on her face with such a force that she literally flew down.

In my childhood, I used to hear that in Muslim countries, women are beaten up for indecent acts and men are castrated. Now I work in one of those Muslim countries and I never hear about incidents like this here. This makes me wonder whether our “rich Indian Culture” permits these insane acts.

If you see the revered Mr. Muthalik’s interview, you’ll notice the phrase “This is a democracy and we have the right to raise our voice if we think something is wrong”. Now Sir, we too live in the same democracy and we too have our share of rights. Also, why the hell are you voicing your opinion about girls resorting to taking drugs, boozing, wearing mini-skirts? Are the males OK to do this?

Do the following with perfection before carrying out any more indecent acts like this:
• Ask your followers to stop wearing western dresses like jeans, tees.
• Tell them to stop boozing and smoking.
• Tell them to get up early in the morning and do puja to all the sacred Indian Gods.
• Restrain them from celebrating the New Year Eve, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day etc.
• Tell them not to work in MNC’s (as management expect the employees to respect the client traditions).
• Advice them to stop eating noodles(Chinese), pizzas and burgers(western) etc.

These are only a few of the things you should do before questioning others and please note that there are a lot of other issues and methods to protest in our country. Please let us live the way we want.

Also, it’s sad to see that all the 27 accused got bails instantly and they are roaming freely among us.

All my friends out here, please join me in saying “Get well soon, Mr. Muthalik”.

Click here for the news report.
Video Courtesy --> NDTV
Interview Courtesy --> Rediff

Atrocities on females

I don’t know how many of you know what Mahatma Gandhi has told about Independence. His words were something like – India will get its true independence only when a woman(or girl) can walk alone freely at midnight on the roads.. Does anyone agree with this? I, myself, strongly agree with it. Independence is not just for individuals but it’s the same for the whole nation(humankind).

Now, let’s talk a little about LOVE. I know that it’s tough to talk just a little about it, but let’s try to do so. LOVE is between two hearts and it can’t just be confined to one heart. It’s not meaningful to say either that one should do anything to gain success in life or that one should do anything nasty to cover up his/her failure in love. I am bringing up these issues to show the increasing crime rate in my home state(or the whole world) just showing failure in love as the main motive.

About a week or ten days back, an incident happened in the town of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, India. Two final year engineering students(Swapnika and Praneetha) are attacked by some people who threw acid on them. Both the girls are seriously injured. Swapnika’s condition is still said to be critical. Police somehow caught the three assailants out of whom one Mr Srinivas was harassing Swapnika on the lines love for quite sometime. It’s another irrelevant story that these three guys were shot dead in an “encounter” by the police.

In another horrific incident, again in Andhra Pradesh, one guy attacked a married lady after she rejected a request of intimate relation by him. He cut her hands and neck.

And just yesterday, a budding actress was said to be murdered by her husband(her parents disagree that their daughter was married). The guy, after killing her, died by consuming poison. The motive was found in a letter that the girl started ignoring him after she started getting more chances in the film industry.

And one good friend of mine was a bit dull while we were chatting some days back. When I asked her for the reason, she said that she was in love this colleague of her for the past one year and when the matter was put in front of their parents, his parents didn’t agree for the marriage. And now, the guy was telling her that their relation can’t continue as his parents didn’t like her.

Com’on guys, why do we play with lives? I know it’s not just the guys who play the tricks always. I heard about some girls too. But, the majority of these issues are blamed(!) on guys. Let’s be an example to the other guys out there.

I don’t exactly know what I want to say with this post. But I hope you got the whole idea behind it.

Mumbai seize

Everyone of you might have known about the siege of Taj and Oberoi hotels in Mumbai. You might have read about this issue in many of the blogs out here. It’s sad to hear that more than 200 innocent people and policemen died in this ghastly incident. The way in which the commandos and the army tried to take over the seized hotels and the Nariman Point, without much harm to the hostages, was really worth a salute. And it’s because of the unspoken heroics of the Taj Hotel staff that most of the guests are able to escape the hotel much before the bloodshed began. I read somewhere about the way a hotel employee came in the line of fire so that the hotel guests can escape unharmed.

I don’t want to write anything about the terrorists or their strategy or the failure of the government. All I want is to appeal to the terrorists is – “Brothers, we are also normal people like your family members and friends. We too deserve the right to live just like your people. What harm did we or our government do to you or to your people? Who told you that your people can live happily ever after, if you take the lives of innocent people?”.

Whoever might be responsible for this, every second person is blaming the government and Intelligence for this fateful incident. Particularly, it’s sad to see that every opposition leader is blaming the government for this incident.
Friends, it’s not time to blame others. It’s time for us to stay united and stand by the authorities to sort out the issue. Let’s not make the issue a political one. I appreciate the way in which NDTV brought us the live updates of the issue, particularly, for not airing any political remarks. In one of the snippet of their news, when Murassoli Maran, a prominent Congress Leader, while giving out some statement to the public about the issue, started to bring some political flavour to the issue, the channel simply cut off the transmission of that interview.

We are Indians and we are proud of it. Let us stand united and do all that we can do to bring peace to our country. For the first time in my life, I was angry with myself for not taking up the dream career of my childhood – to join the Indian army.

Btw, does anyone know anything about the great leader of Mumbai - Mr Raj Thackeray. I am sure that he still believes that he would have handled the hostage situation better than anyone else with his elite MNNS commandos.

My India trip

We, the Indians working outside India, look forward for annual vacations more than anything else(at least I’m like that). So far, I’ve been to India 4 times on vacation. But this vacation has been the most happening for me. One major reason might be my sister’s marriage while the other might be because I got to explore rural India more than my previous outings. Some of the highlights of this vacation are:
1. I spent more than 3 whole days of my 3 weeks vacation in trains (my favorite mode of transport).
2. I met a policeman who shares his lunch box with an old beggar daily. He told me that he wants to take that old lady to his house but his wife doesn’t agree for that.
3. Drank tea prepared with fresh milk (the buffalo was milked just before me) at a relative’s house in a village.
4. Plucked some guavas at the same village and ate them without even washing them. I even saw some people making curries from the vegetables which grew in their backyard there.
5. I went to Hampi, in Karnataka, for a day’s visit. I never knew that the historic city is such a beautiful sight. It was really an engineering marvel. I felt that it’s one of those must-see-places in India.
6. I met a mother who feels that kids should not be scolded for some wrong thing which they do. She says that if you scold them for doing so, they’ll be more inclined to do so in future. You might feel what’s special in me writing this. But I was awestruck when she was laughing at her 3 year old kid who was shouting very bad words at everyone.
These might not seem to be of great importance to you, but I found some difference in them. Something that we are not used to. Anyways, I now sign off to be back tomorrow in the Bloggerville to read some more of your blog posts.

Back to Blogger n Bahrain

It rained in Hyderabad on Monday evening. The sky was cloudy from the morning, alerting people that there's lot of rain to pour down. It started as a slow drizzle which was welcomed by everyone on the road. And then after some 30 minutes, it started raining cats & dogs (well, I've never seen one falling down the sky). It rained heavily for some 90 minutes, making a lot of pools on the roads(Hyderabad became like Mumbai when it rains). Everyone enjoyed the pleasant weather, but the aftermath of that downpour was very bad. There were traffic jams everywhere; shops were closed because of the wind; there were power failures etc. But life became normal slowly after a few hours.

I wrote all this just to say that my vacation was almost same as the above situation. I was aware from the past few months that I was going on vacation in mid August, just like the people were aware of the rain before hand. My vacation started normally, without much happening in the first week, just like it drizzled before the downpour for 30 minutes. My vacation changed its look two days before my sister's marriage and I was extremely busy for 10 days. It was only in the last few days of my vacation that I sat leisurely at home and enjoyed mom's cooking. Just like the aftermath of the rain, my condition is very bad now(after returning from India). I feel solitary, deserted etc.

Well friends, I'm back to Bahrain yesterday morning. Straight to work from airport. Felt sick as I didn't sleep for more than a couple of hours during Sunday and Monday. Had a sound sleep yesterday night after taking a couple of pegs of fine Scotch whiskey(well, it has been an alcohol-free-vacation). There's loads of work awaiting me at the office and my flat badly needs a makeover. So, it'll not be soon that I write more on my blog or check out all your blogs. Please pardon me if I miss some of your posts(I am sure that lots of posts are awaiting me in your blogs). I may start visiting all your blogs from next week.

For Pavi, who kept forward her concern about my mobile number in my blog, "Pavi, that number doesn't work now. It'll wake up the next time I come to India".

Taking a short break

Will be out of Bloggerville for a few days(err... weeks). Am now in India for my sister's marriage. It's on 24th of this month. So, being the lone brother, I've to carry some works on my shoulders(OK, I've to act so even if I don't do them). For some friends in the Bloggerville whom I'm not able to inform about my absense personally, I am leaving my Indian mobile number(temporary) here. It's +91-9704159560. Feel free to call me anytime, except at midnight. I'll be India for 3 weeks(my company nearly died n died to sanction me this leave). Let's hope that they don't call me back before the completion of this 3 weeks!!!!! Bye bye, folks.

This is not the country I loved......

These days, I’m getting scared to watch the Indian news channels. The news in those channels is making me think whether this is India or some barbarian country. I am writing this article because of the following two pieces of news:
1. One ten year old boy was burnt alive by a marriage party today somewhere in Delhi(as far as I can recollect). Let me get into those details. Some persons from the groom’s family, allegedly, got drunk and were travelling in a car recklessly. They hit a ten year boy who’s riding his bicycle. The boy pleaded them to give him the money needed to repair his bicycle and the persons in the car took hi away with them. Later the boy was burnt alive by them at a farmhouse.
2. A girl in Mumbai was living alone as her parents were working overseas. This girl was addicted to drugs and high society life. But she was not having the required money to fulfil all her needs. So she expressed her love towards a guy. This guy was happy enough to get a girl friend and started spending all his pocket money on her. He was buying her gifts, refilling her mobile talk-time etc. Suddenly this girl met another boy and slowly she was inclined towards the second guy(?). She wanted to lose the first guy and disappeared for a day or so. Then she lodged a complaint with the police saying that the first guy kidnapped her and “played with her body” for about 26 hours. The police arrested the guy but was suspicious about the complaint. Slowly they gathered all truth and arrested the girl and the second guy.
All these recent news is making me doubt whether this is the country “I love so dearly”.

Shocked

Last evening, after reaching my flat after office, I was watching various news channels as I’ve been busy in office and didn’t find time to check out the headlines on Internet. There was one news, on the channel that I hate most (Star News), which scared me a little. I was shell shocked by that news.
The news was about an infant’s death in New Delhi. Though the news seems to be just another one of that kind, you’ll be definitely moved if you read this completely. A laborer admitted his wife into a maternity ward of some hospital. She gave birth to a girl but the girl was too weak to be treated as a normal child. So the doctors told the parents that the girl needs to be kept in incubator for some days. The parents agreed and the girl was kept in the incubator. All’s well until day 5.
That day, the girl’s mother heard the girl crying and went to the room where the girl was kept. She saw that the on-duty nurse was sleeping outside the room and woke her up. When briefed about the cries, the nurse replied that this is common for children as they find it difficult to cope up with the varying temperatures in the incubator and dismissed the mother’s fears and didn’t even let her enter the room and slept again. This happened a couple of times more in a short span. Then someone noticed smoke coming out of the room and entered the room. It was then that the truth came out. The baby is dead. Somehow the temperature of the incubator increased and the baby was burnt alive. The nurse who was on-duty didn’t even care to have a look when the baby was crying for a long time. The duty doctor was no-where to be seen. A couple of tears escaped from my eyes when they channel was interviewing the girls’ father.
Now, who should be blamed for this incident/accident? The mother for not pestering the nurse to open the door or the nurse for sleeping on duty or the doctor for not being available during the duty hours or the manufacturers of the incubator for not taking proper security measures? But whomever you blame, we’ll not get the innocent child back.

Well, this an addition to the post. I just read the news about this incident on net. This is a bit different than the one I heard on TV. Click here to read it.

Chak De, India and Chak De, Sachin too

As you all know, India won the last edition of the Commonwealth Bank series in Australia. This series win is historic in many aspects, the major one being the fact that this was won against the Aussies, world no. 1, in their own homeland. And this win is important because the Aussies tried to degrade our players a lot. Overall, this series win can attributed as a team work but the final two matches were dominated by Sachin in batting and Praveen in bowling. Praveen is a talented young chap who’ll conquer quite a few milestones in his career. But it’s Sachin who stood in the news most of the time. Being an ardent fan of him, let me write a few words about him. After all, this is my blog and if it’s not here that I write, where can I write about him?
Before the final three matches of India, Sachin did not play upto his mark. His best scores were a crucial 44 and a blistering 32. He even scored a couple of single digit scores and a duck in the process of the tournament. Then some so-called pundits of cricket raised their voices against him and almost demanded that he has to retire and give chance to youngsters. It was then that the volcano erupted.
India had to win their last league match against Sri Lanka to advance to the finals. No one expected Sachin to play well because (I’m sorry to say this) he had a bad reputation of not being able to perform in crucial matches. But die-hard fans like me were praying for him all the way. Our prayers were answered. He blasted the opposition’s bowling attack with his stroke-play and India easily won the match. But this is just a sign of the storm to come.
The finals for this tourney were in the format of best-of-three matches. In the first final, India was chasing a tempting total of 240. But no target is in reach, if you consider the pace-attack of the Aussies. It was then that the maestro came into rescue. After losing some early wickets, Rohit Sharma joined Sachin in the run chase and they both took the team into safe waters. Sachin was not out till the end and scored 117 off 120 balls. Fittingly, he was adjudged the Man of the Match.
India batted first in the second final and scored a total of 259 runs in their allotted 50 overs. But this score was far less then what was expected at the time Sachin was out. He scored 91 in this innings. We won this match fairly just because of Praveen Kumar who took 3 early wickets and finished with the match figures of 4-46.
Sachin regained his No. 1 rank as the world’s best batsman after quite a few years. He proved to his critics that he’s still the best in the trade. As ardent fans of Sachin, we all hope that he conquers many more heights in the cricketing history.

India Report

As most of you know, I was just back from a short but sweet vacation in India. Surely, India has developed in giant leaps and bounds in the past few years. But there are a few things which I noticed, in this visit, to be in the same place ever since the times I can remember. Let me list some of them:
1. I was directly asked for a bribe at the Hyderabad airport as I was carrying excess cigarettes than those permitted. I was carrying 600 and the permissible limit is only 200, which I don’t know. I was told to either pay Rs 500/- as bribe or Rs 1000/- as tax. What I paid is an entirely different thing, anyway.
2. I went for a drive with my family on the main road when a police vehicle came in front of us from a sideway without any signal. What’s more annoying is that the driver was abusing my father for not slowing down and giving way for them, even though they came from the wrong side.
3. Another day, we were on the high way in our car, waiting at a signal. The signal flashed green and we started to cross it normally. We were in the middle of the road when a RTC (public transport) bus came towards us at high speed from the other side. The driver didn’t even slow down his vehicle when he saw people crossing the road. It was sheer luck that no one is injured in this incident. Maybe the people are used to incidents like this in such a way that they are able to get away just in time.
4. On the final day of my vacation, I was passing-by a flyover which’s under construction in the heart of the Hyderabad city. There were a number of child labourers working there. If it is like this in the capital of the state, imagine what might be going on at other places.

I noticed some more incidents like the above ones during my stay. India can never be called a developed country unless the government takes care of issues like this.


Note: I don't mean to degrade India by keeping "xx" in place of marks in the above picture. Inconvenience is regretted.

A masala filled journey to India

I just finished updating my blog with the news that I’m leaving to India on a short vacation and I’ll not be writing any new articles till I come back. But sitting idle in an airport is the most boring of all. I went for a couple of strolls in the airport but even the duty-free shops failed to ignite the spark in me. To sit idle for a couple of hours is one of the toughest things for a blogger. So I sat down in the aisle and began thinking of what to pen down to pass time. Just then, I saw a Telugu guy who travelled with me from Bahrain to Dubai. I waved towards him and gestured him to come and sit with me. He came to me and said the same old story of a villager duped by some travel agent. I ignored all that as I’ve heard it over and over with only the main characters changed. Then he said that he wanted to buy liquor and asked me to accompany him to the duty-free shop. I went along with him as even I’ve to buy some items from there. I bought my things and went to the payment counter where this guy was waiting with four bottles of scotch. I warned him that only two litres are allowed in India and he ignored my warning just like any other Indian.
Then we departed as he met some of his friends and I started listening to the just released “RACE” soundtrack. After six long hours of waiting, finally my flight to Hyderabad was announced. I boarded the flight without any interesting events and dozed off as soon as I found my seat. I was woken for the dinner(or shall I call it breakfast as it was served at 4 30AM local time) and then some conversations behind me caught my attention. One enthusiastic lady(she’s in her late twenties) was trying to start conversation with some other ladies. There was an elderly couple next to her who migrated from India to Canada. It seemed that our lady’s hubby was working in Dubai for quite sometime. Let me pen down what I remember from their conversation.

Dubai Lady: Pinni garu, meeru ekkadi nundi vasthunnarandi?

Canada Lady: We are coming from Canada.

DL: Canada aa? Aithe chaala rojulaki vasthunnaremo?

CL: Avunamma, after two years.

DL: Ayya baaboi, anni rojulu mana desaanni chudakunda ela unnarandi?

CL oka chinni smile vadhilaaru. Tharuvaatha vaalla aayanatho baathakaani modhalupettaaru. But naaku maatram adhi mana dubai aavidani thappinchukovataanike ani anipinchindhi.

DL oka five mins aagi, “pinnigaru” andhi. Dhaaniki aavida inka chachaanu raa babu annatto oka expression icchi “emitamma” andhi.

DL: meeku akkada telugu associations emainaa unnayaa?

CL: unnaayamma. But nenu vellanu.

DL: ayyo, adhemitandi? Mana desaaniki dhooram ga untu kuda ilaanti vaatiki vellaka pothe ela?

CL: udyogam lo padithe alaantivi emi important anipinchavamma. Ainaa akkada vaalla meedha veella meedha gossips cheppukovadam, cinemaala meedha discussions thappa inkemi undavu gaa. Naaku alaa time waste cheyyadam ishtam undadhu.

DL: pinni garu, meeru udyogam chesthunnaraa? (ikkada mana DL moham naaku kanipinchakapoyinaa aavida face loni expression maatram kallaki kattinattu kanipinchindhi.

CL: avunamma, statistics professor gaa panichesthunna.

DL: baabai gaaru kuda working aa leka retire aipoyaaraa?

CL: (maa aayana gurinchi nekendhuke annattu) aayanaki inka retirement age raaledhamma.

DL: oho, ainaa nenu vizag ammayinandi. Maa vizag vaallaki samskruthi, saampradhaayala meedha prema ekkuvandi. Nenu mana telugu vaallatho maatladakunda assalu undalenandi.

CL: nee peremitamma?

DL: (lolopala pongipothu) lakshmi andi

CL: amma lakshmi, ilaa antunnaanani emi anukoku. Maadhi kuda vizag ye. Ainaa nenu alaanti associations ki vellanu anna gaani mana saampradaayala meedha ishtam leka kaadhu..

Ventane mana DL oka rendu nimishaalu silent. But adhi uppena mundhu vacche prasaanthatha ani naaku tharuvaatha ardham ayyindhi.

DL: meeru serials avi chusthuntaara?

CL: indhaake cheppakadhamma, naaku naa job meedha unna interest ilaanti vaati lo undavani.

DL: avunaa pini gaaru. Kanisam cinemaalainaa chusthaaraa?

CL: amma lakshmi, chaala sepu journey chesi alisipoyaa. Konchem sepu padukuntaa.

DL: ayyo, alaa adagaala pinni garu. Padukondi. Inthakee meeru direct gaa vizag vellipothaara leka Hyderabad lo aaguthaaraa?

CL: Hyderabad lo rendu rojulu untaamamma.

DL: aithe meeku Hyderabad lo chutaalu unnaranna maata.

CL: unnaramma. Andhuke rendu rojulu untaam.

DL: adhemitonandi, Hyderabad lo andhariki chuttaalu untaaru.

Paapam, mana CL gaaru konchem ibbandhi, konchem nirasam kaligina expression petti, vaalla aayanatho “emandi, aa window seat naaku ivvakudadhaa? Nenu window ki thala vaalchi padukuntaa” andhi.

Vaalla aayana maatram seat vadhilthe manassaanti vadhulukunnatte ani gurthinchi “nenu kuda tire aipoyaa, so nenu kuda konchem sepu padukuntaa” ani chethulu dhulipesukunnadu.

Anthe, inka mana DL rettinchina utsaham tho malle modhalu pettesindhi.

DL: pinni garu, adhi prayaana badalika kaadhu. Age valla alaa avuthundhi. Naa maata vini inka ee udyogaalu avee vadhilesi India lo Krishna rama antu brathikeyyandi.

Idhi vini nenu kuda shock. Entha close vaalla dhaggarainaa ila anamu gaa manam. Alaantidhi appude parichayam ayyina aavidatho ila anaalante ee DL ki entha gunde dhairyam anukunna.

CL: amma. Nuvvu entha varaku chadhuvukunnav?

DL: nenu BSc chesanandi. Mana Krishna college lone.

CL: endhukamma mari ala egiregiri padathaav? Nenu Phd chesa. Andhuke chadhivina chadhuvuku saardhakatvam kosam udyogam chesthunna. Naaku neela serials chusthu, pakka vaallatho sutti koduthu mogudu sampadhinche vaati tho brathakatam ante assalu ishtam undadhu. Inka suthi aapi nannu padukonivvu.

Ventane mana DL silent. Appudu thana face chudalanna korikani aapukovatam chaala kastam ayyindhi. Konchem sepatlo naaku nidhra pattesindhi. Ala oka 30 minutes gadichaayo ledho, malle venaka seat lo maatalu start ayyai. Evaraa ani vinte inkevaru mana DL ye. Ee saari thana pakkana unna aavidatho.

DL: edho pedhaavida kadha, mana telugu maatalaki moham vaachipoyuntundhi ani naalugu maatalu maatladithe ela visukkundho chusaaraa? Foreign lo ellaki ellu unte alaane untundhandi. Inthakee meeru maa annayya bharya laa unnaaru. Nenu mimmalni vadina ani pilavachaa?

Pakkana Lady: sarenamma…..(anaka chasthundhaa?)

DL: Meerekkada nundi vasthunnarandi? Meeru eppudainaa DSF chusaaara?

PL: nenu oman nundi vasthunna. DSF antey emiti?

DL: Dubai Shopping Festival andi. Meeku adhi kuda theleedhaa? Asalu evarainaa sare thama jeevitham lo oka saari adhi chusi theeralsindhe.

Ilaa oka 10 minutes saagesariki naa meedha naake virakthi kaligindhi. Ee picchidhi thana paruve kaaka vizag paruvu kuda thega theesesthundhi anipinchindhi. Ventane air hostess(kathi laa undhi) pilichi vere seat unte shift cheyyamanna. Thank god, ventane maarchesindhi. Inka happy gaa bobbunna.

Hyderabad lo dhigina tharuvaatha budhigaa velli immigration counter lo nulchunna. Naa venakala US nundi vacchina oka telugu janta nulchundhi. They are in their late twenties. Vaallu vaallalo edho maatladukunte, endhuko interest kaligi vinasaaga.

Mogudu: Chi, mana pakka line chudu. Ela padithe alaa nulchunnaru. Assalu India vaallaki discipline ledhu.

Pellaam: Aunandi.

M: Andhuke ikkadiki raanu anna. Ikkada drainage kampu, rules leni traffic……… naa valla kaadhu. Chudu chudu, vaadu madhyalo ela dhuripoyaado!

P: Avunandi. Ainaa naaku maatram India raavatam ishtam anukunnaraa emiti? mee chelli pelliki kuda manam raakapothe andharu nannu blame chesthaarani vaccha. Elaago ee 15 days gadipi velipodhaam. Meeru evarini emi anakandi. Konchem temper ni control lo pettukondi.

Ee maatalu vinesariki okka saarigaa naaku thikka regindhi. Intha kante “made-for-each-other couple” ekkada undaremo anipinchindhi. Vaalla vanka oka saari chusesariki naaku participate cheyyakundaane KBC lo koti rupayalu vacchinantha aanandham kaligindhi. Endhukanukunnaru???? Vaalla venakala mana DL undhi gaa. Ventane oka verri keka veyyaali anipinchindhi. But airport kadha ani aagipoyaa.

Mellaga immigration formalities anni complete chesukuni kindhaki vachesariki customs dhaggara oka bulli godava. Emitaa ani chusthe, first naaku parichayamaina athanu. Customs vaadu rendu bottles maatrame allow chesthaam, migathaa renditiki tax kattamantunnadu. Mana vaadi argument chusthe bhale navvocchindhi. “Dubai airport vaallu ammuthunnaru, nenu konukkuna, madhyalo meeru fine kattamantaaremiti” antunnadu. Ventane manam broker avataaram etti, mana vaadini pakkaki theesukelli situation explain chesesariki naaku dhula theerindhi. Tharuvaatha customs vaadiki “paapam andi, mana vaadu akkada labour. First time India vacchaadu. Vadhileyyandi” anna. Vaadu konchem aalochindhi, sare aithe tax Rs 2000/- avuthundhi. Mee vaadini Rs 1000/- ivvamanu annadu. Mallee vaadini brathimaali oka 500 ki oppinchaa.

Adhandi, naa vacation inni godavaltho modhalayyindhi. Inka migathaa rojulu ela untaayo?

Oh God

Today morning, I was watching NDTV as I got ready for office a bit early. There was this particular news which literally shocked me. Tamilnadu govt donated a piece of land to an NGO who intended to build a school for the blind there. Everything is ok till then. The residents of the particular colony where the land was allotted are against the building of the school for two reasons:
1. It's inauspicious to look at blind people early in the morning.
2. The school will damage the reputation of their colony.
And the residents filed a case and the court promptly gave a stay order on the construction of the building. All I can say after hearing the news is "Oh God".

I'm back

Hello friends, I'm back to the blog world after my short vacation to India. All your wishes paved path for a wonderful trip. The trip was great with lots of fun and entertainment. Met a lot of relatives and a few friends this time. Fifteen days is really very less time. But I utilized it well with some out of the box things like a small boat trip with my reltives on a fishery boat in the Bay of Bengal etcetera. Ate lots of our Andhra special dishes like Panasapottu kura, Ulava chaaru, Uppu chepa kura and few others. I have lots to write about the trip but it'll take a li'l while for me to settle down here. Will update lots of details by this weekend. Till then, adeos....