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The other day HRS called me after returning from his umpteenth visit to the US. And we had a pleasant chat.
HRS and me were close friends, classmates, and colleagues in frustrated research at AU, Vizagh, for all of seven years (1958-65). I left for IIT KGP and retired from there and settled in Hyderabad. HRS left Vizagh to join Cochin's Oceanography Lab, retired from there and settled in Hyderabad...he had participated in one of their Antarctica Expeditions in the 1980s.
He too didn't take up a paying job after retirement...both of us are full-time idlers.
He got my number somehow and started calling me and asking me to participate in the Old Students Jamborees here and there in Hyderabad and I used to politely say sorry...I preferred to spend my quality time with my little Ishani.
His little Ishanis are all in the US. All his three daughters are happily married and settled in the US each with a kid or two. And HRS and his wife stay in Hyderabad, especially in the first week of November to submit Life Certificates and in July to file Income Tax returns. When I asked him if all his kids got their green cards, he said, "more than green cards"...
They visit the US for months together and stay with their daughters and their families before returning to Hyderabad. Ishani and the rest of us had visited them at their Kukatpally flat when my wife was just about able to travel that far...10 minutes by car. And when my wife died, HRS and his wife were in the US. So this time they wanted to pay their return visit to us last weekend.
The call went somewhat like this:
"Hullo! We are back from our latest US trip. Can we visit your place this weekend?"
"Most welcome...but my son, D-i-L, and Ishani would possibly be unavailable"
"How come?"
"Oh...my son and D-i-L are a working couple with staggered timings. My D-i-L wakes up at 5 in the morning and leaves to her workplace by 7.30. And returns at 2.30 in the afternoon. My son wakes up at 8 in the morning and leaves for his office at 2.30 in the afternoon. And returns at midnight by when both his wife and daughter are fast asleep. So, they have their quality time only in the weekends when they take Ishani out to the Fun City or Shilparamam or a movie or something...their weekends are heavily booked. Perhaps the next but one weekend I can ask them to stay back for a couple of hours if you book your slot in good time"
"Hmmmm!"
"How was your US trip?"
"The usual...nothing different...after our first visit when we were bowled by the Niagara Falls and the Disneyland and stuff, I prefer to stay home and get bored after our daughters and their husbands go to their workplaces and their kids to their schools...I never get bored in Hyderabad"
"How come?"
"I take two newspapers...DC and ToI...and the whole day I am busy browsing them page by page"
This was a remarkable coincidence, for I too take DC and ToI and enjoy reading them.
Lots of masala in India...not to speak of Irani Chai and Dum Biryani.
When HRS called, I happened to be reading a delightful news item...with color pics.
Our state, AP, is currently on the boil due to the lamentable excesses of our politicos. It is on the verge of a neat bifurcation...one half hails it as their Freedom Movement while the other likens it to a Second Partition.
The citizens of one half were so much enraged at the Congress High Command that they went about pouring petrol on the statues of Congress Idols like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and burning them up.
The politicians on the other side asked their Babus what could be the opposite of 'desecration'.
And their Babus told them: 'consecration'
So the inflamed politicos went climbing precarious launch-ladders to hover above the statues of the said Gandhis in their region and poured barrels of milk on their heads....
The visuals were great viewing...no wonder HRS missed his Hyderabad while in the Land of Gold.
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The other day HRS called me after returning from his umpteenth visit to the US. And we had a pleasant chat.
HRS and me were close friends, classmates, and colleagues in frustrated research at AU, Vizagh, for all of seven years (1958-65). I left for IIT KGP and retired from there and settled in Hyderabad. HRS left Vizagh to join Cochin's Oceanography Lab, retired from there and settled in Hyderabad...he had participated in one of their Antarctica Expeditions in the 1980s.
He too didn't take up a paying job after retirement...both of us are full-time idlers.
He got my number somehow and started calling me and asking me to participate in the Old Students Jamborees here and there in Hyderabad and I used to politely say sorry...I preferred to spend my quality time with my little Ishani.
His little Ishanis are all in the US. All his three daughters are happily married and settled in the US each with a kid or two. And HRS and his wife stay in Hyderabad, especially in the first week of November to submit Life Certificates and in July to file Income Tax returns. When I asked him if all his kids got their green cards, he said, "more than green cards"...
They visit the US for months together and stay with their daughters and their families before returning to Hyderabad. Ishani and the rest of us had visited them at their Kukatpally flat when my wife was just about able to travel that far...10 minutes by car. And when my wife died, HRS and his wife were in the US. So this time they wanted to pay their return visit to us last weekend.
The call went somewhat like this:
"Hullo! We are back from our latest US trip. Can we visit your place this weekend?"
"Most welcome...but my son, D-i-L, and Ishani would possibly be unavailable"
"How come?"
"Oh...my son and D-i-L are a working couple with staggered timings. My D-i-L wakes up at 5 in the morning and leaves to her workplace by 7.30. And returns at 2.30 in the afternoon. My son wakes up at 8 in the morning and leaves for his office at 2.30 in the afternoon. And returns at midnight by when both his wife and daughter are fast asleep. So, they have their quality time only in the weekends when they take Ishani out to the Fun City or Shilparamam or a movie or something...their weekends are heavily booked. Perhaps the next but one weekend I can ask them to stay back for a couple of hours if you book your slot in good time"
"Hmmmm!"
"How was your US trip?"
"The usual...nothing different...after our first visit when we were bowled by the Niagara Falls and the Disneyland and stuff, I prefer to stay home and get bored after our daughters and their husbands go to their workplaces and their kids to their schools...I never get bored in Hyderabad"
"How come?"
"I take two newspapers...DC and ToI...and the whole day I am busy browsing them page by page"
This was a remarkable coincidence, for I too take DC and ToI and enjoy reading them.
Lots of masala in India...not to speak of Irani Chai and Dum Biryani.
When HRS called, I happened to be reading a delightful news item...with color pics.
Our state, AP, is currently on the boil due to the lamentable excesses of our politicos. It is on the verge of a neat bifurcation...one half hails it as their Freedom Movement while the other likens it to a Second Partition.
The citizens of one half were so much enraged at the Congress High Command that they went about pouring petrol on the statues of Congress Idols like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and burning them up.
The politicians on the other side asked their Babus what could be the opposite of 'desecration'.
And their Babus told them: 'consecration'
So the inflamed politicos went climbing precarious launch-ladders to hover above the statues of the said Gandhis in their region and poured barrels of milk on their heads....
The visuals were great viewing...no wonder HRS missed his Hyderabad while in the Land of Gold.
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