Showing posts with label hyderabadi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hyderabadi. Show all posts
on 7/16/2008 09:55:00 pm

Quite strong words for a category which sometimes could be used to describe me. True but sadly generalizations have no mercy and I am guilty by association. I am accessory to the crimes several of these commit by just letting them do their own. It is understandable of a few are guilty of one or two of these crimes to civilization, but no! Almost all of them are guilty of the whole decorated set of shockingly inappropriate public behaviour and what’s worse is like in everything else they do they find it no wrong. Here are the medals for hall of shame and they only pertaining to his behaviour on the street and in public places.

  • They see, They Pee: If I had a dollar for every time I saw a man empty his bladder on the street I would be featuring in the forbes lists. Have you no shame unzipping and pulling out your organ in a public places and spray all over the poor wall. They do it alone, they do it in pairs. They do it near waste dumps, the do it on the cleanest roads. They do it on a lonely road and on a busy road. They don’t discriminate when it comes to a place to uriniate. Every wall has its day. They all ought to be incarcerated for public nuisance and exhibitionism. Atleast bring back that rule which was there a couple of years ago where they pick up a man caught urinating and drop him six km away.
  • Its Pan man: Sequel in the spraying festival. This time it is from an other orifice called the mouth. They chew tobacco and ingest volumes of the red gooey material and get all kinds of digestive system related cancers. Fine. But why the hell do you have to spray paint my town with your disgusting oral graffiti. They should all be made to take their shirts of and clean their own spit.
  • Loud’speaker’: Another among the hyderabadi mia’s virtues are being born with an inbuilt amplifier. This amplifier seems to work exceptionally well in public place and in public transport especially among peers. Please just stop bragging about your sad, pitiful and meaningless life and do the public some good. We dont find your jokes funny and you don’t have voice like Jeremy Clarkson’s or Amitabh Bachchan. People please them to keep their silly fat ego and mout shut.
  • Foul Ghoul: A powerful add-on to being a loudspeaker which brings even the brilliant Firefox 3.0 to shame. He can’t control the voice, that’s ok! At least control the soddy tongue! You are not macho if you dole out a list if never ending expletives beating around the bushes of fornication and allusion to some one’s mother. We understand that you ahave a sad job, demonic wife, miserable children etc. But, please that gives you no right to chant hymns from the drainage pipe. They ought to actually clean the mouths of these people with soap, no detergent actually!
  • Rules and Queues .. Kyun? : There again props the ugly head of the irascible nincompoop who finds rules flexible, law beneath him and queues, no he doesn’t understand queues. If and when he sees one he behaves like monkey given an iphone. He has no regard for the traffic rules are or any other rules. The biggest scapegoat is the half-decent minority(aka the rest of the population) in the city because it faces danger due to his heroic antics like charging at the red light, driving drunk and aimlessly, turning through gaps in the dividers etc. He likes doing multiple ‘s’ at the traffic lights trying to steer through the narrowest of gaps. And all these were only rule breaking pertaining to traffic.

There are several other worthy mentions in the hall of fame shame. The most important being his hands. There is no limit to the places they have been in public. Right from scratching his head, digging his nose and adjusting his pants and crotch to placing it on whoever is besides him and putting pressure on the poor neighbour while moving around and pushing someone else to move across. He simply doesn’t understand the concept of personal space. And there are several rogues who form a smaller subset of this group who indulge in far more worse behaviour and in anti social activities like domineering, mugging. Eve-teasing, drunk roaming etc.

Why are we like this? Is it the ignorance and illiteracy? Is it hatred of one another or disregard for civil life? It may be due to all the above reasons, may be none. I don’t know but all I know is, it is wrong!

Rehne do bhai. Ab isme kay badi baat hai? Class mat lo.


-V-

on 6/28/2008 01:55:00 am

"Bhaiya, chana garam karna.
Pyaaz daaliye aur theeka paani."

As I sit here writing this my mouth waters. Mmmm. Pani puri.Not the Pani puris at Dadu's or Gokul that you get on a plate and you have to serve yourself! I am talking about the true bandi pani puri. Its a life wasted if you haven't tasted a plate yet. Another matter altogether if you didn't like it!

I guess it has something to do with the slight smell of kerosene in the air. Or the chana or the tangy pani. But there is some element in the bandi puri that is always missing elsewhere!
Its always fun to have it with friends. We stand in a row while the guy hands out each one of us a plate and we get to have one puri each. If you are a fast eater like yours truly you can always grab the one he hands out to your neighbour. The fights that we have had! Its definitely more than the taste. Its the memories we have built around a pani puri bandi.
For the hard core fan a mouthful of heaven can mean getting through the city traffic. Distance doesn't matter. That wonderful feeling with your eyes and nose watering is worth every single second of the hardship faced.

The right weather to eat pani puri would be in that period when summer ends and monsoon just begins. It may turn out to be an utter disaster if you have it in the monsoons! Unless you think you have a gut of steel don't venture out for pani puri when it is raining.

It is one inexpensive evening snack. Hunger pangs after college? Head to the next bandi. On an average, a plate would cost you about 5 rupees and you get about 5-7 puris per plate.

My recommendation:
Chirag Ali Lane
Radhe Shyam-James Street

Insider's Tip: Trust pani puri bandis next to colleges. They are there
because of the students.
Ask for the cup made with leaves and avoid using the plate he gives out.

-black coffee-

on 6/10/2008 08:03:00 pm

Urban dweller is what I am. I need a bustling metropolis and the speed, action and the adventure associated with it to fuel my soul. Hyderabad is charming city having all of those and more albeit in its own way under its own terms of ease and laidback nature. The nawabi spirit is deeply embedded in our way of life and well we are one of the laziest cities I know or have heard of. Are we concerned about it. Nahi bhai liite lo. Jo hai theek thaak hai.


Hyderabad is one of the most likeable cities in this country. Those who live here are perennially in love and those who visit always want to come back. The people are friendly and help is offered without being asked at the slightest indication of you being in trouble. It has got an awesome climate (yes I say that in spite of the hitherto never been so hot summer) and impeccably location(12 hours away from 3 other big cities in India).

Hyderabad has an immense potential of being one of the best cities in the world in terms of development, prosperity and progress. In typical desi style we talk and promise a lot but always do as little as (legally) possible. We see big things for ourselves but woefully fall short of meeting targets or at least fulfilling them. We are culturally diverse and each has multiple identities. Wear what fits for now. Think about it later. We are too lazy to change but jump for it when it does happen somehow. Yaha aisa hi hotha hai.

And for these particular reasons (and all those you will learn in future) I have a love-hate relationship with this city.

But regardless of what I feel from time to time I certainly know it is an integral part of me and my personality. When I get back here from an outstation visit and step down, with all my senses I know this place. This place called home.


-V-
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Have you ever been frustrated because you did not find a store open when you were up in the morning? Then you will have to re-define what mornings are! For a Hyderabadi, a morning is when the sun is right on top of your head, about eleven-ish. You will never hear a resident here complain about the shops that open late! Am I complaining? Hell, no!


You would not be crucified if you don't know the language. Sometimes I wonder if it has any particular language. Broken Hindi? Torn Telugu? Doesn't matter. People have an amazing knack of getting you right each time. Well, I may be exaggerating. When you love something, you do it wholly with all its flaws.

There is this undying friendly spirit that is irreplaceable. Jiyo, tho jaano. I have seen strangers smile at me, for no reason at all. I have smiled all day at strangers and have been spared the weird look. Accidentally bumped in to a car with your scooty? Apologetic smile avoids an expletive filled tete-a-tete. I am not saying we are very tolerant, but we do try and avoid hassles.

Why am I telling you all this, now? Do as I say. Settle with a cutting of Irani chai for a journey that you will explore with us. Knowing us, we will rub a little of the Hyderabadi charm on you! Kyun, sab khairiat?

-black coffee-