A morning walk

This happened the day before yesterday. I have come to Hyderabad for my summer intern. My guest house is located on Road no.-3 on Banjara hills while the place I'm working at is at Road no.-2. And while it may look like a very easy reference, the so called 'roads' are a bit circuitous with many twists and turns and cul-de-sacs which usually hide one or more buildings. So anyway, I was to start my training from day before yesterday and I had slept so much the previous day, that I woke up at 5 AM. And, after a leisurely bath, I decided to scout the area and try to find my office, which wouldn't open till 10:00 AM. It didn't seem like a bad idea then, as the morning air was quite inviting ... and I had been reading Lord of the Rings for the seventh time, after which such promenades look sort of heroic.
I had some idea of the general direction to Road no-2, so I set off finding a path to it (I know, reeks of LOTR). There was an old man walking ahead of me. As soon as he noticed me, he gave a smile and started talking to me ... in telugu; which I don't understand at all. For a couple of minutes I just gave him a smile, as I thought he was probably commenting on the beautiful morning or the birds chirping or something like that... or just saying 'good morning', and would shut up once he saw my appropriate response. It seems my response was exactly the kind he wanted, because after that he got even more enthusiastic and chattered away quite happily. I considered telling him that I can’t understand a word of what he was saying, but I guess I hesitated a moment too long. I mean, you let a man talk to you for 5 minutes and then you tell him you didn’t get a word sounds like you were playing a prank. So, I kept quiet, deciding to part ways with him on the next crossroads. But just before I could do that, he gave another smile, said something, and then looked expectantly at me. I was supposed to say something! So, I fished around for some neutral response. What I ended up saying was, “Could you please repeat that in English?” What he said next was again telugu, and from his gestures and facial expressions I could tell that he was telling me he doesn’t understand English. And automatically, I said, “I can’t understand what you’re saying.” He seemed to get the message. The smile disappeared and he swiftly walked away. Poor guy; he looked really put off.

Two days ago, when the walk was still fresh in my mind, this would have made a longer post, as I talked to a number of people and pondered over a number of things while walking. But, most of it has slipped away. There is only one, rather scatological incident that I remember. The place is a hill, as I mentioned before. So there was this big patch of land, that was fenced with barbed wire and there was a sign there saying, “Government property. Trespassers will be prosecuted.” And on the other side of the fence, half-hidden behind a bush, a man was shitting on the government property. I wondered if he knew he was making a very explicit political statement. And what about the ‘trespassers will be prosecuted’ thing? Wasn’t there anybody to even guard the property? And suppose there was someone who ‘prosecuted’ the guy, wouldn’t that make headlines? It would be something like :

Shot while shitting

A zealot was killed in an encounter while defiling government property today on Banjara hills. The guard on duty says that he found the alleged anarchist defecating on the land reserved by the government for its new weapons research facility. Even after repeated warnings from the guard, the man did not stop his sabotaging activities; instead he proceeded to do it faster. When the guard fired a warning shot he started jumping about, no doubt intending to defile as much land as possible before getting caught. Seeing no other choice, the guard shot the saboteur.

It is not clear whether the investigators suspect the hand of terrorist organizations behind this incident. A statement from the police department has yet to be issued. Meanwhile the chief minister has issued a statement stating that the enemies of the state shall be dealt with harshly. The security of all the government properties has been beefed up. While the heroic guard, Mr P.K. Margaye, has been nominated for gold medal.

My God! I never thought I’d ever write bullshit like that, much less publish it on my blog. But I enjoyed writing it. I guess a little BS now and then is quite all right.

Ah well, must wrap up all loose ends. Yes, I did find the building I was looking for; but not before I had traveled the whole length of Road no-2 in one direction, which stretches a couple of kilometers, and back the same way. It was hidden in one of the cul-de-sacs I was talking about. I was a little tired by then, and the sun had climbed up. It had taken me about 2 hours of walking around to hit the spot.

So after I had had my breakfast and cooled my heels in the guest house for about an hour, I walked to the place again, intent on reaching on time, trying to make a good impression. So what happened was that I reached the place 15 minutes before time, and the HR guy I was supposed to meet came half an hour late that day. Then, he told me to go and meet my project manager, who was also late and hadn’t arrived in office yet. After another hour’s wait, I finally met him. Then he told me to wait until my desk was set up by the IT guys. Another hour’s wait. And of all days, I chose this day to refrain from bringing any book or notebook with me. So I had absolutely nothing to do for about 3 hours I spent in the office. And when my desk was finally set up, I fell asleep on it. Hell of a first day. But at least I’ve learned to keep some contingency plans for such situations in the future.