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I was talking about my first visit to Hyderabad, in 1975.
One fine noon my sister, V, got a letter by Ordinary Post in her name from the Govt of Andhra Pradesh asking her to attend an interview at Hyderabad for the position of a Junior Lecturer in Physics. The letter went to her permanent address at Gudur and was duly forwarded by my father to KGP. With the result that we had only five days to start on our journey...it was the beginning of summer vacation and so I decided to escort her.
Those days there was only one direct train from Kharagpur to Hyderabad...the East Coast Express which took about 30 hours of travel. The received wisdom was that one should always try and take the East Coast Express to Hyderabad since it prepares you for what lies ahead...the train had neither lights nor water...just like your destination city of Hyderabad.
But we couldn't get accommodation by that train at such a short notice. So we traveled by the Madras Mail to Vijayawada, planning to stay in the Retiring Room at the station, spend the night, and take the early morning Golconda Express from Vijayawada to Hyderabad.
We reached Vijayawada in good time at 7.30 PM and rushed to the Station Superintendent for allotting us a double-room. And he was kind enough to give us one. We checked in and were back on the platform hunting for some grub.
As we were walking along, my sister was spotted by an ex-classmate of hers who was waiting on the platform to catch some other train at 10 PM to some other place. And they started chatting auld lang syne. And I was a fixture a dozen feet away standing first on the right leg, then on the left, and finally resting the bottom on a stone seat. And they talked and talked I don't know what about while wolves were racking my belly and rats were chewing my brain. And when she got released at last and joined me after a couple of hours, I asked her why she took so long and she replied hungrily:
"I was too shy to walk out and hoped you would come up and pull me away"
"Wouldn't you have minded it if I did that?"
"Of course, yes"
That was very ladylike...
We had a couple of dosas each and retired and reached Hyderabad by noon next day which happened to be a Sunday. And I was wondering how to find suitable accommodation for a brother and sister in a decent but not very highbrow hotel in a strange city. To my immense relief, we were received at the Secunderabad station by two more of my sisters who were then at Hyderabad on a short stay of a fortnight. They were then working as lecturers at Nellore sent on Spot Valuation Deputation to Hyderabad.
They solved the accommodation problem of my younger sister, V, much to my relief. They, along with 30 other moffusil lecturers like them, were put up in a college dorm which had no furniture...just the bare floor where they spread their holdalls, gabbed, laughed, and quarreled like ladies in Bigg Boss.
I thought I was free to find some digs in an Economy Budget Hotel. But all three of my sisters brushed the very idea off. They said their colleagues were mostly married women who understood things and would have no objection to put up a brother of one of them for just 3 nights. I was scandalized at the very idea of staying in a ladies' dorm at night...but you just try to defy 3 sisters of yours who are unanimously hellbent.
So I was thrown out of the women's dorm at 6 in the morning to spend the day here and there and return by the backdoor at 10 at night. It was anomalous...at KGP, boys could hang around in the girls' hostel during day but were thrown out at night.
So, for 3 days I was footloose on the streets of Hyderabad trying to spend my waking hours sight-seeing and lamenting.
One of my missions there was to find a suitable parting gift to my Guide, SDM, who was retiring in a few months. And I thought a memento from the famed city of Nizams would be cherished by him. My budget was Rs 100.
After rejecting one after another as unsuitable for an old man, I found at last what really won my heart. As I was walking along the Koti road window-shopping, I was attracted to a wonderful showpiece staring at me from its glass case. It was a miniature veena, apparently made of white metal, and filigreed exquisitely.
I walked into the shop and asked that veena to be shown to me. The shopkeeper-cum-salesman took it out of its showcase and displayed it to me lovingly. And I looked for the price-tag and the sticker read:
"Rs 1000"
I was flabbergasted and asked him why, and he said it was pure silver.
And I retreated with my tail between my legs.
Finally I got what I could afford and what SDM loved...a gift-set of a dozen new Penguin Paperbacks...each priced Rs 5 only...some Wodehouses and some Sherlock Holmes...
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One fine noon my sister, V, got a letter by Ordinary Post in her name from the Govt of Andhra Pradesh asking her to attend an interview at Hyderabad for the position of a Junior Lecturer in Physics. The letter went to her permanent address at Gudur and was duly forwarded by my father to KGP. With the result that we had only five days to start on our journey...it was the beginning of summer vacation and so I decided to escort her.
Those days there was only one direct train from Kharagpur to Hyderabad...the East Coast Express which took about 30 hours of travel. The received wisdom was that one should always try and take the East Coast Express to Hyderabad since it prepares you for what lies ahead...the train had neither lights nor water...just like your destination city of Hyderabad.
But we couldn't get accommodation by that train at such a short notice. So we traveled by the Madras Mail to Vijayawada, planning to stay in the Retiring Room at the station, spend the night, and take the early morning Golconda Express from Vijayawada to Hyderabad.
We reached Vijayawada in good time at 7.30 PM and rushed to the Station Superintendent for allotting us a double-room. And he was kind enough to give us one. We checked in and were back on the platform hunting for some grub.
As we were walking along, my sister was spotted by an ex-classmate of hers who was waiting on the platform to catch some other train at 10 PM to some other place. And they started chatting auld lang syne. And I was a fixture a dozen feet away standing first on the right leg, then on the left, and finally resting the bottom on a stone seat. And they talked and talked I don't know what about while wolves were racking my belly and rats were chewing my brain. And when she got released at last and joined me after a couple of hours, I asked her why she took so long and she replied hungrily:
"I was too shy to walk out and hoped you would come up and pull me away"
"Wouldn't you have minded it if I did that?"
"Of course, yes"
That was very ladylike...
We had a couple of dosas each and retired and reached Hyderabad by noon next day which happened to be a Sunday. And I was wondering how to find suitable accommodation for a brother and sister in a decent but not very highbrow hotel in a strange city. To my immense relief, we were received at the Secunderabad station by two more of my sisters who were then at Hyderabad on a short stay of a fortnight. They were then working as lecturers at Nellore sent on Spot Valuation Deputation to Hyderabad.
They solved the accommodation problem of my younger sister, V, much to my relief. They, along with 30 other moffusil lecturers like them, were put up in a college dorm which had no furniture...just the bare floor where they spread their holdalls, gabbed, laughed, and quarreled like ladies in Bigg Boss.
I thought I was free to find some digs in an Economy Budget Hotel. But all three of my sisters brushed the very idea off. They said their colleagues were mostly married women who understood things and would have no objection to put up a brother of one of them for just 3 nights. I was scandalized at the very idea of staying in a ladies' dorm at night...but you just try to defy 3 sisters of yours who are unanimously hellbent.
So I was thrown out of the women's dorm at 6 in the morning to spend the day here and there and return by the backdoor at 10 at night. It was anomalous...at KGP, boys could hang around in the girls' hostel during day but were thrown out at night.
So, for 3 days I was footloose on the streets of Hyderabad trying to spend my waking hours sight-seeing and lamenting.
One of my missions there was to find a suitable parting gift to my Guide, SDM, who was retiring in a few months. And I thought a memento from the famed city of Nizams would be cherished by him. My budget was Rs 100.
After rejecting one after another as unsuitable for an old man, I found at last what really won my heart. As I was walking along the Koti road window-shopping, I was attracted to a wonderful showpiece staring at me from its glass case. It was a miniature veena, apparently made of white metal, and filigreed exquisitely.
I walked into the shop and asked that veena to be shown to me. The shopkeeper-cum-salesman took it out of its showcase and displayed it to me lovingly. And I looked for the price-tag and the sticker read:
"Rs 1000"
I was flabbergasted and asked him why, and he said it was pure silver.
And I retreated with my tail between my legs.
Finally I got what I could afford and what SDM loved...a gift-set of a dozen new Penguin Paperbacks...each priced Rs 5 only...some Wodehouses and some Sherlock Holmes...
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