Its Hyderabad

Okayyyy, so now after thinking many times over and over, I finally moved to Hyderabad.  This is not the first time that I have come to this lovely city.  I came here first when I was just 3 years old as a tourist along with my parents and my elder bro.  At that time, we had visited among other things Nagarjunasagar dam, a lovely place.  I dont know what's the position now, but there was an island in the middle of the dam where you need to go in a motor boat, and you know what, there were hundreds and hundreds of beautiful peacocks all over the place.  I still remember we had such fun clicking them.  And yeah I remember watching the clock in the Salarjung museum which I had a chance to revisit in 1992 when I was here staying in Kacheguda in my student life.  After 1972, exactly 20 years down the line, I landed again in Hyderabad to pursue a course to become a radio officer in merchant navy.  But unfortunately even after spending a full academic year, we could not appear for the exam of that particular course, which is conducted by the Govt. of India, Deptt of Telecom, since our exam forms could not reach Delhi as the plane which was carrying the forms crashed while landing at Delhi airport, so we were told.  Though no one died in the crash, but our forms and our future in merchant navy did die with it.  So I had to return empty handed.  But I must say, I enjoyed my stay in Kacheguda.  The hostel was a dormitory comprising two big halls in which the owner had put out beds and had given lockers to each one of us.  While attending the classes, over a period of time, some of us friends became a group.  There were 3 boys and 3 girls or you could say three couples in one group.  Even after so many years, I still remember each one of their names and we had a lot of fun going to movies, picnic, religious spots, you name it and we had been there, but mostly movies.  After that it was in 2003 that I had come to this city in search of job when I was already into my present profession of medical transcription..  As I do not like to travel alone, I brought along a friend of mine from Nagpur as my wife was pregnant.  Since I had already applied online, the office was expecting me.  After the customary interview and other formalities, my job was finalized.  But I did not joint immediately.  This was in July.  After going back to Nagpur, myself and two of my friends decided to do home based job in the same field at one single location.  So, it was decided that two of us fund PCs and start work at one of us' home.  After working for almost three months, we decided to wind up because the company which was giving us work, did not have much of it.  It was based in Bhopal and its future was in dark.  So, we stopped.  As the third friend did not own a PC, I sold mine to him and finally I moved to Hyderabad in the same office where I had finalized my job.  That was in December.  Since my wife had gone to her native place, Benares, for the delivery of our first child, I came alone here.  As I moved to Hyderabad, my mother was alone in the house and had to manage all the things by herself.  During the course of about four months that I was here, she fell ill, traveled to Baroda for a week as my brother was posted there at that time, and had to deal with a lot many things all by herself.  She suffered quite a lot living alone in Nagpur until the time I was here.  Seeing her plight, I decided to go back to Nagpur to be with her as I could not bear more of her being there alone.

culture shock

The main definition of culture shock is when a person migrates from his or her area of inhabitance to another area which is completely alien to him/her and where he/she finds persons with altogether different lifestyle.  I can say that I experienced a similar thing in my life when I shifted from my city of residence to another for employment purposes.  First it was to Raipur, then in MP, from Nagpur.  The Chhattisgarhi language was totally new to me and could only start to understand a little of it after many months.  Also the food taste was quite different from what I was accustomed to.  The second time it happened in my life was when I shifted to Hyderabad from Pune.  Here again, the only staple diet of the people is idli, dosa, and rice which too I found difficult to adjust to, and not to mention the Telugu language which is quite difficult to understand.

जेव्हा एक व्यक्ती एका क्षेत्रातून दुसऱ्यात राहण्याकरिता जातो आणी तिथलं राहणं खाणं, जिवनशैली त्याच्यासाठी नवीन असतं, माझ्या मताप्रमाणे ह्याला परकीयकरण असे म्हणतात.   माझ्या जीवनात असे दोनदा घडले.  पहिल्यांदा जेव्हा मी नोकरी संदर्भात नागपुरहून रायपुरला गेलो, मला वाटते मला पर्कियकरणाचि जाणीव झाली.  तिथली छत्तिस्गढी भाषा, तिथली राहणी खाणी मला बरीच अनोळखी होती.  तिथली थोडिफार भाषा समजुन घ्यायला मला बराच काळ लागला.  हा अनुभव माझ्या आयुष्यात दुसऱ्यांदा तेंव्हा आला जेव्हा मी पुण्याहुन हैदराबादला आलो.  इथलं हवामान, राहणे , इडली, दोसा, व भात खाणे, ह्या सगळ्या गोष्टींमुळे मला परकीयकरण अनुभवायला मिळाले .  त्याहून कठीण इथली तेलुगु भाषा जी समजायला फारच अवघड आहे.

Letter to the Prime Minister

A letter to the PM


Respected Mr. Modi:

Your idea of Swachha Bharat is no doubt very innovative and a need of the hour, but I very much doubt its success, which I think, you also know.  I think the main reason behind its late success is lack of education in our country.  I always believe that 90% of Indians are bloody illiterates, govt. figures notwithstanding.  What I mean to say is Indians lack civic sense and to teach them such a thing we need to give proper education and inculcate good habits.  I am not saying that I am not in the 90% lot, no, because many times I find myself in such a situation where I have to either throw something by the side of the road or even more attend a nature's call as there are no proper facilities of either a dustbin or a toilet.  I know this is going to take a lot of time, a lot of effort and many more years.

I think it is in the genes of us Indians to litter around and live in filth.  It is a well known fact that Indians who go abroad for greener pastures are mostly brainy guys, "brain drain" as we call it.  But in other countries too Indians are known to litter around.  It does mean that even the most brainy and well educated persons are in the habit of, nay love to live in filth.  It is so much so that that I heard in Singapore the dirtiest area of that country is where the Indians live.

Is there is any solution  to this?  Of course,  there is and that is education and only education.  What I think the biggest factor going against your idea of Swachha Bharat is the indiscriminate  use of plastic bags.  I sincerely request you to completely ban the use of plastic bags in all its shapes and sizes even if that means bringing in draconian laws just like they have in Singapore where a person is fined $500 for spitting in the open.  I know the task is difficult but not achievable.

Regards,

Rohit Badhe