Happening hadduland (part1)

Hey all,

It's been long since i posted something here. I don't really know whether to put experiences i have this time, in open or not. But lemme start atleast...

It's all about Hadduland (Hyderabad for newbies) and two precious months of my lifetime spent there. It is my internship period after 3rd year of B.Tech. I was feeling a bit lucky to have got an internship through campus and a bit thrilled to be getting a comparable sum of stipend. For a week or so, hyderabad remained a place full of Malls, Showrooms, Cinema halls and all the luxory a middle group city could have. Not that the place changed all of a sudden after a week, but it was me who had to come out of the A/C room provided by the Company (DRL) for just a week, to look for our next residence. Then i saw the real hyderabad- full of variations, full of a mix of North and south Indians. Not only crowded malls, but also busy roadside tea stalls. I had a first hand experience of Indians not knowing their national language at all ! I just couldn't help saying WTF ! r u an Indian ???!!! Worse was the case when some of them didn't even know English ! though i must say proportion of English speaking population was more than any north Indian state.

We finally put up at a penthouse. 4th floor without lift!!! U'd think 4 times before leaving ur room. We thought even more times before entering our building. Food ??? Man it was horrible ! As though only South Indian tag was not enough, it was worst out of the south Indian food and no need to tell, no chapaties at all ! About taste ? do they know anything except chillies and chilli power ? And even if we compromise with that, we had Haddus all around sitting in groups, eating with raw hands, with every sorta vegetables or dals wateva mixed in same plate, with even curd mixed to that. Adding to that was thr eating style CHAP CHAP, both from mouth as well as hands. We clearly understood it was not fault of Haddus reaching our insti ! After tolerating for a day or two, I never had my meals there, so did Baba and Anoop, my parteners. After wandering around for 5 days or so, we finally selected a pure veg dhaba where u cud have MEALS. Pao bhaji and dal fry-roti was all we dared to experiment with there.

We used to spend our evenings in malls and shopping complexes. You have some NICE crowd in mals there. As always, i kept looking 4 CHANCES at the dhaba too. And it was that day when i met the dhaba gal. I was about 2 b over with my mango shake when she checked in. Turning her head around standing at the counter, she stuck to this direction with my eyes staring directly into hers'. She was wearing specs and so was i. She thought the reflection of her glasses won't let me know she was looking at me; and i pretended the same ;-) It was time to pay the bill. I reached the counter as soon as i cud, just looking 4 a chance to start with. Soon she called up the dhaba owner for her PARCEL of Kaju Korma...

"Uncle !... uncle... !!!"
i just jumped in... " Uncle ??? Arre achha khaasa jawan hai wo to ! "
"Acha, to kya bolun ?"
"bhaiya bolo. Feels young"
"Ok, bhaiya !... bhaiya !. uffff. bhaiya bhi nahin suna. ab kya karun ?"
"In that case, excuse me is the ultimate solution. Just try it. "
" okkk ! Hello ! Excuse me ! My parcel ?"

And by my fate, he heard her this time and her parcel was there in no time !!! We had a nice smile exchange with a sorta laughter on her face ! The only dialouge came to my mind was ," Hasi to fasi !". Well, as u must have expected, i managed to reached the same dhaba, same time the next day with my eyes having an aim this time. And to my utter surprise, she was there, sitting near the counter. It was so quick......She was talking to a friend in a serious note...i entered...just saw and hi fied her...her expressions suddenly changed from serious adult to an overjoyed kid... she smiled and hi fied me with double energy...said something to her friend jovially... got up... had some water... picked her parcel... turned around...had a look at me again...and gone...

I gave it a thought for five minutes atleast... if her parcel was already ready, was she waiting for..... was she overjoyed seeing me same time same place or was i looking funny today ? Wat must have she said to her friend ??? etc. And like all other instance, SANDEEP from inside shouted," Arre chhadd yaar, she's just another gal ! " Ok ! i was pacified. next 2 days were weekend and we enjoyed as much as we could, no dhaba jus restaurants. On Monday, same dhaba, same time, but she was not there, neither was i hoping (but expecting a bit). Next day we had to shift our residence. Month was over and we moved to a better place, higher rented but worth living. I let the dhaba chapter close just in 2 meetings!!!

I never knew fate had even worse in store for me !!!

To Be Continued...

PS:- One of my readers, quite interested in these kinda stuffs brought to my attention the fact that Hindi is Official Language of India, not the National Language. India Constitution doesn't specify any National Language. Apologies for the mistake and Thanx Reader !