Something about Nothing

As is usual last week again found me at a bookstore. Although I tend to haunt Odyssey, this time I ventured to Crossword, just because I was in the City Center Mall. I have earlier had a laughable experience there regarding the categorization of books they have, but this time the experience was anything but laughable.

A group of girls was huddled in the front of the ‘Romance’ section, which unluckily was just a shelf away from ‘Indian Authors’ section that I was browsing. And then the cell phone of one of them rings. She lets the entire store know that they have been waiting for the past half an hour for the person on other end to come, and are just doing ‘time-pass at the bookshop’ (her exact words). And then their talks began in earnest. That one shelf of books was no match for the rising crescendo, and the incessant and the loud chatter emanating from the ‘Romance’ section battered my ears.

I came away with just one book - a rarity for me.

Advice to booklovers: Never visit Crossword Bookstore at City Center Mall, Hyderabad unless you know exactly the book you want to buy. The bored crowd of the Mall congregates there and makes simple book-browsing a very un-enjoyable task.

Technorati: Crossword, Hyderabad, Odyssey

Before coming to Hyderabad I had never driven a geared vehicle. I knew the theory, but had failed abysmally at the only practical I had tried before setting foot here (which (the foot, I mean) incidentally celebrated the sixth anniversary of being grounded-firmly-in-Hyderabad yesterday, and it seems highly unlikely that the-set-foot would budge). So it is established now that I was a novice at driving vehicles with gears, so let me carry on with the anecdote.

This took place before the bike-full days, when I was in first year. I was standing at the JNIDB bus stand waiting for 216 or 217 (I do not know if anyone else has noticed this, but don’t the buses come bunched together? For a long time no bus would make an appearance, and suddenly there would be a cameo appearances by multiple buses (I now think Sehwag is inspired by the Hyderabad buses - a series of small scores, and you miss the big knock if you miss half hour of the transmission on that particular day, any of the Sehwag knocks are invariably quick!)) to appear to go to Mehdipatnam. So another fact is established now - that I was waiting for transportation.

All of a sudden, a guy on a scooter stops near me and offers me a lift. Well, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth - soon I was riding pillion on way to Mehdipatnam. We had hardly cleared Gachibowli when he stops and asks me to drive; bewildered as I was, I realized I was at least a kilometer adrift of any bus stop, and to be honest his driving skills had not imparted me any confidence - so that time the only sane option I could think of was to accept his offer of driving and at least get to the next bus stop, Those were my very early days in Hyderabad and I was yet to encounter the wonder called shared-auto. So few stalled starts and many jerks-and-shakes later I was driving, the whole time the weirdo was grinning and humming some song. When he started talking non-stop once he was on the pillion, only then I realized that the guy was drunk. I did not have the heart to leave a drunk on road on a scooter, so I continued driving till Mehdipatnam. To say that it was an adventurous drive would be an understatement. Driving a geared vehicle for the first time in my life and that on an old highway! Thanks to the drunk on the scooter, with my first tryst at serious driving I had conquered the highway

So if I summarize, I can answer the question in four words - “a drunk helped me”; but I took 438 words… Talk about verbosity

Technorati: Hyderabad, Driving

Few days back I was driving through Jubilee Hills when a car comes on the main road from a side alley. Well, deeming that beauty a simple car would be a disgrace to it. I have never seen a more gorgeous car. A low car with curvaceous body, it was a delight to look at. Being car-illiterate, I have no idea what make the car is and I am tired of looking at the car in the rear-view mirror of my bike. To find the make and to look properly at the car, I reduce my speed. For a few minutes I drive along side the car, I am still unable to find the make of the car, when all of a sudden the car reduces speed drastically. I think maybe the car is turning, don’t give it a second thought and continue along my way. But the car does not turn and is still on the same stretch of road as I am. I try to get beside the car again, but as soon as I reduce my speed, the car drops its speed even more. No matter how slow I got, the car continued to be slower then me. The car did not wish me to be beside it that was clear. Why? I had no idea. Baffled I left the matter at that and continued at normal speed regretting that I never found out the car’s make.

Soon I stopped at the traffic signal, and again in the rear-view mirror I spotted the car. As luck would have it, the car comes to a stop just beside me. I again start appreciating the car, when for the first time I notice the driver. The lady is busy rolling up the window on the side where I am standing. I am sure if it had been a comic book, her thought bubble would have been screaming obscenities at me. How I wish I could have explained to her that I had never even noticed her, I was not hitting on her; the only thing that had my notice was the beautiful car, and the only thing I was hitting on was the car. Sigh!

If there is anything like cosmic justice, then today I was witness to a strange act of exactly that.

A pedestrian is about 10-15 feet ahead of me, and his path is blocked by a tiny stone. Why - I don’t know, but maybe out of frustration or just to clear his path, he kicks the stone onto the road, which is a host to many two & four-wheelers. The stone hits the tyre of one of the bikes and bounces back at the man and hits him in the shin.

Reminded me of a zillion Hindi movies - the hero (here, a stone) angry enough to take revenge!

By the way, updated the Theme. I have always been a follower of clean white themes, so again a clean theme with a new header image