miss you Hyderabad..!

I would, instead, prefer a title 'first day of my real job', but there are two main reasons why I’ve titled as 'miss u hyd'. First reason is it sounds a bit odd, i mean the word 'real job', or if we ignore 'real', someone from inside will shout 'u did home tuitions, radio programme recording and hey! U got salary on cheque too', so I can’t ignore real. Then the second reason is, I am 22 already and I don’t feel like using 'first', that too for a simpler thing called 'job'. I have few complicated things which need the word 'first', so I saved 'first' for them. Now, two words from preferred title are out and I don’t think that u people expect me to use '....day of my....job' as a title. Therefore 'miss u Hyderabad' doesn’t mean it, it just means that I need a title and it must not be 'first day of my real job'.

In fact I am not missing Hyderabad in spite of having enough love. Just a sec... Even though I am bit disturbed and not in a position to give such general statements, I, hereby taking all the rights on my blog, I say... "I am not going to miss anything more than my mom". I have my own reasons to say this, and I am not just saying that, I know that it is the reason. But still, being a human being with not only thoughts, but also with feelings... I miss my home, those roses, shadow under mango tree, I miss my bike, I miss its beat, I miss going out for nothing except for small gear shifting, I miss my evening coffee, as its available here, I miss my coffee-mates, our chit-chat, I miss Mohan even though we talk less normally, I miss his physical presence, I miss those late night talks with kaushik... Oh my god..! I have a big list here; maybe I am making sense of the title.

Coming to the point, that bloody Bikaner special reached Ahmadabad station at 2am, and not on 1st, but on 3rd platform. As this is the worst part of train journey, I hate crossing platforms using foot over bridge, it took 15min to make my mind and as there is no other option, I came to first platform constantly dreaming of drinking a nice coffee on platform 1. Luckily, jus beside steps, I saw a tea stall and to make my dream real, I asked for coffee. That dream made me reach there, so I can ignore it as the purpose is served, but my dreams trust me and I must not betray. So finally I was out and an autowala came asking where to go, I asked for a hotel and he dropped me at hotel vintage and stayed till my luggage was kept in room, I was pleased and asked his name, while giving extra 10rs, “nishan” he said smilingly and left. The first person I met in Ahmadabad, I thought.

Got up at 08:30, with great struggle in snoozing the alarm which started waking me up at 6. Thanks to nokia for providing my mobile with symbian s60 os, whose alarm will snooze for only five times, later you must again set the alarm. Finally reached office at 10:45. I think instead of the word ‘office’ I can say a nice duplex with small lawn and beautiful interiors. First thing I ever thought is to have a house like this, of course, without those employees. Anyway, who wants their boss at home, except those idiots who are eager to get married.

After giving small introduction to receptionist, I was asked to wait upstairs for concerned person. I sat  there dreaming of owning that house and trying to delete those employees from my new home and of course, taking care that I won’t delete that office boy without whom it’s difficult to maintain that house. Interrupting my dream, someone came and gave me a manual regarding a new product for time pass. I took that seriously and after few min, due to my concentration on that, I felt sleepy, then I found that toughest task in office is being awake. That manual was too lucky and someone came to rescue that from me, or else I would have started munching it.

“Mr Prashant Sarkale, marketing executive” he gave his hand.

“Prabhat Raju from Hyderabad, nice to meet u” I gave my hand, taking better care of making an impression.  In fact those four words in last were really not told just like that, without even having a conversation, I used those because I felt so, maybe it was written on his forehead or may be my instincts started working. And it’s true, before the dawn I found that he is a good guy, meeting whom I must feel pleased. He led me into marketing manager’s cabin, where the first thing that caught my attention is a pinup saying “among all the abilities under the sun, I pay the most for the ability to deal with people”, I smiled, and hey..! I really don’t know the reason why I did so.

            He gave me his visiting card along with a brief introduction regarding his education and company. After few minutes of pure silence, he asked

‘And..?’

‘Can I keep your card’ was the first question I asked my trainee on the first day of my job. He smiled, I think, holding back his laugh, and said ‘ya ya of course’. Then the most awaited boss came. After small ‘hi-hello’, he sent me to conference hall along with prashant bhai where we had two hours of serious business. Then we went out to have my lunch, we went to a roadside tea stall which happens to be their adda.  In fact, as we have our hideout at home, we must also have one near office, it’s the most essential thing. As he is leading me, he suggested ‘muska bun’, I nodded as I don’t have any other option. Muska bun can be simply defined as burger without anything in between, except butter. Maska means butter. Still it was good, at least for winning over my hunger. We were again on his splendour nxg, at 30kmph going to give money at his colleague house who went off-station on official work. All the way he kept on telling me regarding the places. While crossing IIM-A, he told ‘u know IIM, here I did my one month diploma’. The first thought that crossed my mind was ananya and krish’s love story from novel ‘two states’. No no, it’s not the problem with my thinking, in fact I finished that in 10hrs, jus yesterday in train hoping to return that in some other station to get a 50% refund. Unfortunately, when I finished reading, the only major station left is Ahmadabad and as I already said, it was 2am, so it remained with me. The second thought was not as stupid as the first one… ”how to get into IIM-A?” Because there were eight guards and moreover the wall is too high to jump. There must be another thought “how to be a student in IIM”, but I skipped that thought coz my b.tech kicked me so hard that right now I am not interested to go for higher studies, and hey..! I don’t regret for that.

           

 After that money was safely handed over to his colleague’s wife, we went to a nearby lake surrounded with small park. These kind of lakes are there in almost all the major localities in Ahmadabad, even though some are much smaller than ECIL ground, it’s nice to have one in each locality. King of all these lakes is Kakariya Lake, which, in fact, is a really nice place to hangout with a girl in evenings. While parking, he left his helmet on bike and I said “if u do the same thing in Hyderabad, you’ll never see that again” and he replied, “we follow equality here, if someone takes mine, I’ll take someone else’s” and he was having chances to do so, coz everyone left their helmet like that. Actually, it’s not a helmet; it’s a plastic cap worth 30rs, so no one will steal that. But in our Hyderabad, people buy a lock even before they think of buying a helmet. In Ahmadabad, if people consider anything seriously, its food and the second thing is food and third too. Then comes family and business. But in Hyderabad, uncles are more concerned about the helmet than their food. Because if traffic police, I mean a married traffic police without having his breakfast, is on streets and u got caught, he won’t ask your lunch box, he’ll, instead, ask your helmet. Because a helmet can buy him not jus breakfast, but he can finish his day with a RC quarter without even going home.

            Later, we started to my hotel for checking out. While crossing a Kaman-like structure, he started telling regarding the Ahmadabad again “this is an entrance gate to Ahmadabad years ago when the city was 5% of whet it is now. Ahmadabad got 12 such gates along with a protecting wall, which, of course was demolished while building new city”. Then there is a Jhulta Minar, which can be shaken. If one minar is shaked, the other one will follow the rhythm. And mind it, this is a structure made with solid rock, centuries ago. There were eight such structures among which six were demolished by british people for finding out the technology in that, but they found nothing, ‘this is India u idiots, anything can happen here’. Among remaining two one disappeared due to ageing and the other one got privilege to look at Prabhat as a pillion on Ahmadabad loving guy’s splendour nxg.

            When we reached railway station road, I gave him directions to my hotel where I stayed yesterday night. But as it was 2am and all those roads are alike, we ended up in wrong lane. I covered my mistake saying “that tea shop looks same as that one where I had coffee in morning” and he replied “all the streets here have a tea shop”. Finally when we got into correct lane, to my surprise, it has a tea shop in same corner, same colour and with identical benches. In fact those two streets have pan shop located exactly the same place and in same direction. Not just these two, all the streets have these tea stalls and pan shops in common. Therefore no wonder that even a great brain with internal GPS fail to locate its destination. So, after checking out, we went directly to another hotel which is nearer to our factory, he said its walk able distance, but it’s like walking from koti to abids, luckily, without any girl who is shopping. During this ride, to make our friendship close to closer, I thought of a nice topic to start with and landed upon movies, after seeing a ‘dubangg’ poster.

“Do u watch hindi movies or gujrathi here?” 

“hindi ka yaar, I watch them a lot”

“Bingo..!” I thought “wow, he used ‘yaar’ instead of Prabhat ji’

Then I continued same topic using my small knowledge of recently released movies. As my last movie is ‘once upon a time in Mumbai’, I started praising and commenting the movie taking care that I am within the limits while commenting the stars. Who knows, he may be a fan of ‘ajay devagun’ or may be ‘imraan hashmi’. Later our discussion paused at shah rukh khan passing through all possible related topics like ajay devagun, aamir khan, salman khan etc. fortunately, he is a big fan of SRK, so he continued the discussion “SRK is the real man, he is the ideal person whom we can take for an inspiration. Once in an interview, he was asked why he is avoiding Hollywood when everyone else is eager to play a role, and you know what he said ‘mhuje swarg dwar pein sipahi banne se acha narakh ke raja bhanke rehna acha lagta hein’ means ‘I feel its better to be a king for hell than to be a guard to heaven’ what a great principle”. I nodded “ya ya” surprised at his involvement in sodi. In fact he translated all those hindi dialogues into English while saying me. But ignoring everything around, he continued “our hero rejected all those offers from Hollywood, how great he is... do u know, he spent his first night on footpath... once when he was passing through a house, he said his producer that someday he is going to buy that house and it is his house now. Moreover have u ever saw him with any girl? Being an actor he doesn’t have any affairs…….” And so on, he continued proudly about SRK.

            Among everything, Mr. Prashant Sarkale is very much fond of few things like Ahmadabad, his job, Narendra modi, SRK, his girlfriend and above all, his parents. His parents run a laundry shop and therefore he started pressing clothes since his 3^rd class. His parents are the main reason why I liked him. There are so many other things that I found special in him, but they are not meant to be written here.

            As we went near my hotel, he pointed at a five storied building which stood in between all those black factories, saying that it’s our factory. Then after crossing NH-8 at an under construction bridge, we reached my hotel where I must stay for the rest of my life, in Ahmadabad of course. He left me after telling tomorrow’s schedule.     

            Finally, here I am, all alone with few non living things like luggage, mobile, tv, bed etc. anyway for me, being alone is not a big problem, I am good if I have a mobile, and I am better if I have a thought along with pen and paper. But I am the most dangerous one to be with myself. I can’t explain this statement, but as far as I know about me, it’s correct. I spoil myself when I am alone, but the best comes out when I am alone. So we can take ‘lonely me’ as an example for pure dichotomy.

            As I got six more hours to spend before the day turns out to be ‘my second day of real job’, I thought of having an evening walk along with supper in climax. So, at around six in evening, I came down in a black t-shirt and white three-fourth. I went to near-by restaurant and after spending enough useless time with menu card, I opted for noodles as it is safe to have Chinese when u are hungry in Gujarat. Because, here if you ask for chillies, they’ll serve with sugar, and if you have enough guts and u ask them why, the answer will be “meeta ke bhina khana kaise kayoge yaar”. They want everything sweet, in fact dining table in our office is having two bowls, one filled with jaggery and other with mango pickle. But unfortunately, a sweet mango pickle, I don’t know where on the hell they learnt making a mango pickle which is sweet. These people love sweet to such an extent that they will eat jiggery while eating that sweet pickle, something I don’t even dare to think of. That much sweet makes me sick. Thank god, luckily, here alcohol is banned “lekapote mandu loki munching ki kuda bellam ea”.

            Therefore, after having my semi-sweet noodles, I had a glass full of buttermilk so that nothing goes wrong. After getting rid of 60bucks, I was on streets, again. Here food is a bit less-expensive, which doesn’t mean that it’s cheap. So many varieties are available as people are very much fond of food. They’ll never keep their mouth empty, they’ll always keep eating something or other, or else they’ll chew pan with a local name ‘masala’. They’ll split everywhere making all the road sides red in colour. Every nuke and corner is be bestowed with a pan shop making it easy for anyone to have masala whenever, wherever.

            I brought an ‘orbit’ from near-by medical shop and sat on a railing beside our hotel to enjoy a single piece of orbit completely. I sat there chewing it and closed my eyes so that I can concentrate completely upon that sugar coated mint chewing gum, but the first thing that appeared after I closed my eyes is an innocent face and her forehead, I don’t know the reason, but.. but.. I really don’t want to remember that, and moreover I even don’t want to forget that particular instance, not only that, I don’t want to forget any particular second from those three months. In spite of loosing almost everything I feel glad that my life has got those three months, 84days 3hours 12min, precisely. Anyway, who wants to forget first love? More over we let it go, by ourselves. It was our decision to let it go and initially I had 70% share in that decision. When she asked me to come to their parents once, I convinced saying ‘em kadu le, ee three months chalava life long happy ga undatanki’. She asked that only once. Later, during last few days, my share has fallen down to 20% and I felt like having her throughout the life. But it was just a feeling, not a burning desire, not even a desire, so nothing happened. When you want something by all of your heart, the whole wide world conspires to bring that to you. All I want is her happiness and she don’t want to make her parents unhappy, so therefore the feeling of having her in my life was buried- alive. She is the most beautiful mistake of my life but not the worst mistake, because I got a big life ahead and I am the most mischievous one around. Therefore leaving a perfect person in life is not the worst mistake as it will never effect mankind, except me and may be her. Strictly speaking, I missed her, I still miss her, but I don’t regret for that because those three months were enough for me, and I have got enough memories.          

            A tear just went down my right cheek disturbing all these thoughts and my brain shouted “u idiot why are u doing this to yourself, just stop thinking, it’s all over, u forgot her, stop it, u are on streets of Ahmadabad, izzath khachra, stupid” then heart replied “marichanu anna marichedi ela, marichaka nenu batikedi ela” another tear. Then as I don’t want to mess up my first day, I started to my room, shutting down both brain and heart.

            The road was too narrow there because of under construction flyover in front of hotel. Still, everyone is speeding like they are on highway, honking horns. Everyone in Ahmadabad use their horns like their accelerators making the road noisy. For a second, I got shocked thinking how all this noise failed to disturb me. Everyone is trying to yell “kee keee.. maha raja sri thope thurum is coming, look at me”. I accept that people make noise in Hyderabad too, but they’ll yell “maha raja sri thope thurum is coming, side please”. I pointed out this because ‘side please’ is ok and ‘look at me’ is too much.

            In Ahmadabad, there are real look-at-me things which don’t need a horn to get attention because who will ignore when they see a Benz s-class or BMW 7-series is around. High end sedans are more compared to all other places because most of the people are business men and they always prefer bigger things. I’ve seen so many houses having four or five Benz or BMWs. One more reason is joint families with Benz or BMW each. But they don’t maintain these cars accordingly as they are common here, of course they don’t even maintain their houses properly. Here u can see a duplex worth 10 million with a big lawn appearing like a booth bungalow and I am sure that all the boothnaths inside will have a Benz parked in front of it making a sum of four or five per house.

            Finally, I thought ‘enough for roaming today’ and came back to my room with few sets of eyes watching me differently. I think may be because my French cut or short, because no one around is seen with either of these. So back to pavilion, me me and me, mind it, I am not alone. After 10 or 15min someone knocked, four guys came looking for me, all trainees, including two from Hyderabad. So I had a small introduction followed by chit-chat and they left after 15min.

            By 23:30, GMT+05:30, in Ahmadabad, I was laying on my bed closing my eyes and thinking…

 “my dear life, here I am, following u silently”