It isn’t quite the same. I could never say that I’ve lived long enough in Hyderabad earlier to expertly sigh about how I feel. But nevertheless I sense the change. Some portion of the change is a genuine relief while some things haven’t changed at all or took to worse. Having lived in the States a bit has definitely taken a toll on my patience for unclean public places. Not finding a trash can in the vicinity, having to bargain everyday with the auto driver, the no-receipt businesses, inhaling fumes in sizable quantities at the signals are something the city has always put up with. I did too, at one time. It’s difficult now however. There are pleasant changes too. People are actually reacting to a ‘thank you’ and a ‘sorry’- in a nice way. I remembered snorts for a response few years ago. This auto driver I remember actually said “It’s okay” when I thanked him for the drive. J
There are new shops everywhere. I can no longer recollect my ex-landmarks. Given that I’m extremely challenged in terms of remembering my way back and forth, I find that my good old coffee shops and ‘that’ hoarding or ‘this’ autostand kinda visual reminders do not help. Now the new landmarks are GVK, Cinemax, Landmark, More etc. Whatever has happened to my Fusion 9, Frankie point and Sarvy. It’s all corporate giants in my block. The big glass boxes. I no longer find those cute little shops that sell just about everything.
And there’s the Telangana hassle. I don’t know who wants what and why but I’m sure I don’t want trouble. I hear it on the news, in the papers, on the streets and even from my auto driver. Yea, I keep bringing ‘him’ up because that’s where I get my daily dose of news, exposure and occasionally the headaches too. Nobody I talk to knows if that’s what they want. And these ‘bodies’ are ‘the Telangana people’. I don’t care if you get a separate state or not, dear ‘whatever you want to call yourselves’, but I do not want to pay those exorbitant auto fares twice a day, deal with power cuts and noisy rallies outside my street. And somebody please kill KCR ASAP.
I’ve gotta talk about my 3 week experience on house hunting. I checked the classifieds, craigslist, Sulekha and even hired a couple of agents (rental) to speed up the process. The agents are either unintentionally annoying or that’s how they ‘graduate’. After several no-shows, one guy shows me a 1bhk on the ground floor of a blue independent house. Sure it’s on the ground floor but towards the rear end of the ‘portion’, 2 feet away from a kennel housing 2 mad looking, under-fed, grief stricken Alsatians who would love to tear me up if I lived any closer. I ‘no-thank you-ed’ him. Meanwhile I check out a few houses on my own that either read ‘slum’ or ‘Arrogant house owners- Beware’. I don’t know when exactly the real estate and the need for housing in Hyderabad has increased alarmingly but it seems like nobody really needs an Engineer/Architect or a Planner in the City anymore. Sure it hurts personally. None of the houses I came across had a decent wall. Trust me I’m not being over critical here. The walls are crooked, the tile-work looks like they did it themselves or perhaps humored the neighbor’s son, you’ll find beams obscenely hanging in the middle of the bedrooms, kitchens look there was a local earthquake, and why are there Indian toilets still? Didn’t the world move on? And they price it at 8000. Nobody cares if the building is sitting on the compound wall or if you can walk comfortably in the corridor without bruising your elbows. And nobody’s ever heard of a balcony. Oh well if you must consider the overhang next to the kitchen that has just enough space for a grating and a post Industrial revolution model tap (read faucet). Well one might say that I might have to look for Architect built apartments. But I’m not looking forward to pay my two-month salary towards a month’s rent.
I know these things happen every day and to everybody. I know I should keep up. At the end of the day, however I’m just a regular resident of my city trying to make my ends meet.
