BRAKE!

Its crazy! Have I ever told you I love Hyderabad? Ok, NOW, I officially hate it.

There was this board on the divider which read HYDERABAD... Bigger, Better, GREATER... and there is more... What they forgot to mention was - in what way?!
So today was the day of realizations. Writing it all like a story is a pain to me and to you, so lets just check some salient points.

-> I hate Y.S Rajasekhar Reddy. From the bottom of my heart I hope something really really really bad happens to him.

-> Flyovers can fall. Even if a transformer falls it is equal to a flyover collapsing. Which brings us to another important point - Transformers fall because of the soil erosion caused by 2cm rainfall. (God! the AP govt learnt one word from the science text book. What only if they learn something that sounds as posh as eutrophication )

-> And if this transformer is close to an under-construction flyover, then, that too can collapse by the transformers weight or by the soil erosion.

-> Why are flyovers forever under construction in Hyderabad? Ask YSR!
Efff him.

-> TV5 people are everywhere these days. They bravely park their vehicles under YSR's flyover babies.

->So our lovely transformer did fall and what came after that? Traffic Jam. Not the "litch" 500 meters baby one. The huuge kinds... that spread across Mehdipatnam, Banjara hills, Masab tank, Panjagutta, Lakdi ka pool, Begumpet and more. If you know Hyderabad then you probably have realised you have no place to go but crawl with the traffic.

-> The Masab tank flyover is capable of supporting 4 hours of complete traffic on it (live tested). Goes to say, Babu's work lasts. For longer than 7 years and many many 10 cm rainfall. Jai BABU!

-> It takes climbing up and down 4 buses to realise its better to wait for your own bus than show smartness in taking some random bus JUST because you have a bus pass.

-> And it hurts your ego if the 4th bus you take after all the crawling is the bus you couldn't wait for.

-> Sail club is tempting when you can sail all the way to necklace road and back and still find your bus just 100 meters from where you last left it.

-> One would LOVE to do the radio mirchi traffic check if only they were given a helicopter. The show would run forever.

-> Empty-auto drivers should be tortured by their own meters. They CANNOT stop at all. (Though the look on Suma's face was priceless. Hehe;) )

-> Cell phones can be thrown when your mom says "auto kadaikkalena bus la vaa"..."seekram va"... "Kalambi va nee modalla" ... Right I am fishing at tank bund that I dont even want to start. So I want to scream "I have been on my way for the last 2 hours" but NO! Such talks aren't supposed to be prolonged for your own sanity. So okayBye is the word of the day.

-> Coming back home 4 hours after college closed, the last thing you would want to hear is "ALL YOU DO IS EAT AND SLEEP". But no energy means wonly okfine.

-> So what do we get inspite of going through all this? A college which isn't even half-worth all the trouble we take reaching it or getting back home. Only criminals everywhere.

-> Traffic Jams make you forget to celebrate the ONLY time Osmania University reval results show sympathy on you. Another bunch of criminals they are.

Thats pretty much the last few hours of my life. Special thanks to Shruthi, Suma and Rajee for playing a major role in all the life changing experiences.

I took this pic of a man working on the Panjagutta flyover which collapsed recently. Was hoping I'd get a chance to use it. But now I just thought I'll put it up.

It goes off again

Only yesterday I was wondering if I would ever tag another post with blasts... Bham NOW. I keep screaming The Alchemist logic is sometimes working with me and this just proves it. As such, Paulo Coelho doesn't make sense to me.

So there have been 2 bomb blasts this time... One at the Lumbini park's laser show and the other at GOKUL chat! Now thats really sad because the whole of Hyderabad loves these places ( Gokul chat especially ) and now they are a black mess. It was weekend too and I don't even want to think about how many people could have been there. Though the papers say the crowd was much lesser than usual, all I have to say is good for you if you weren't there.

The last blast in mecca in may was kinda not written the way it should have been. But now the feeling of uncertainty is the only thing thats there. You do not know where it is going to happen next. But you know it is, considering a lot of bombs were defused around the city. Again all of them were in Hyderabad and none in Secunderabad. So definitely, more to come.

I know this is crazy but if it can be Gokul chat it can be just about anywhere else. The government cannot install metal detectors everywhere. Buses cannot get one in a day nor can everyone be checked at bus stops. What if there is a cunningly created traffic jam and BOOM. What if its at the Buddha statue? There is a list of what ifs but there is nothing one can do.

How can people be so cruel? How can they kill so many people? Why can't they target the people they want to teach a lesson to? Its innocent lives that they are taking.
How the hell can they be so heartless? How can religion matter so much? These people make me cry.

In between all this they show a blood stained Java text book on NDTV and I feel bad all over again. Around 50 people, who only wanted a happy weekend, are dead now. Painful. Very.

There is a bandh tomorrow. I don't know if I'll be ready to get into a bus for sometime though. I don't know if I am scared. Its funny. Wherever you walk, you are walking into trouble. But you cant stop walking. Trouble seems to be the only certainty, for the day atleast. So I guess I just have to live it.

PS : My mom said, "No more lunches for you. No more birthday parties...". I didn't care to listen. I knew I couldn't argue. :-(

Out of track...

This is it! I officially hate summer. And I soo hate bomb blasts just before my last exam. But it happens and it happens only in Hyderabad. Did I forget... It happens only to me and yeah a couple of others in my batch.

The days are HOT, to say the least. I carefully make plans for a 2 week holiday after a month and a half long exams and get ready to leave to Bangalore on 21st and what should happen? My last exam gets postponed to 26th may because of the bandh on 19th after the bomb blast at a mosque near charminar. It IS very sad. The blast was actually shot by one of TV9's cameras which was there, trying to make a documentary on religion or something and it was scary. But again, why does it all happen only when I make plans? :-(

The day the blast happened was funny actually. Imagine this - You are studying for an electronics subject and you are NOT an electronics student. All you wish is something would happen and some angel would just make you pass the paper. You are forcing yourself to study because its your last exam when a bomb blast happens in a verrrrry communally sensitive area. Suddenly everyone is watching tv to see if there is any kind of unease. Suddenly everyone spreads an idea about a possible bandh and suddenly it IS a bandh the next day.

In all this suddenness some 3 hours pass and I realise I have 1 huuge unit to do and I don't even know if there is an exam tomorrow. All the initial "I dont want a bandh tomorrow" turned into "I dont want an exam tomorrow". Around 10 o clock in the night ( I still have that huuge unit left ) our HOD confirms that there isn't an exam afterall.

Now, we or atleast I began hoping that the exam would be conducted on Sunday (20th may) so I could still go ahead with my plan... No! DAMN! It just can't happen my way. Exam on 26th and nothing can be done.

So here I am writing about this when I get a call saying bomb near tank bund or it could also mean bomb in hussain sagar. So I faithfully put on Tv9... then Etv2... then Gemini and what do I see everywhere?

FLASH NEWS : ooooooooooooooo...

Damn! I should learn to read telugu. Ok I am done with all the realizations. I should probably go load my brain with some signals and systems. Thats a distant possibility though. I officially hate that subject too. It spoilt my plan and it is making me rot in this heat. Damn this heat!

And if you didn't realise - DAMN is the word of the week... or is it the word of the season? :-(