This weekend was marked with another wonderful ride. Me and my friend Srikanth S. Perinkulam wanted to go towards the old city of Hyderabad rather than the usual routes of Hussain Sagar – Necklace road and Osmania University. So as planned he started at 5.30 at Habsiguda and came down to my place in Nallakunta by 6.

We started off by 6.15 and had an uninterrupted ride till the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station also called as Imlibun (It used to be a large planting of tamarind trees before some decades so the name) where we were interrupted by a traffic jam early in the morning because of the buses inflow into the bus station. We had no other option but to get down the bikes and take them on the footpaths till we crossed the bus station.

As we crossed PuranaPul, we could see the Old city slowly coming to life with many people near Afzalgunj bus terminus. We followed only the main roads and avoided bylanes completely. We turned towards Madina and before he knew Srikanth let out a gasp. The magnificent Charminar was before us in its grandeur. As we crossed the Kaman, it came into full view.

We rode past the Charminar and stopped at a distance to take a few pics. It was 6:50 AM. We loitered around a little and again started back again by 7:05. This time we took the Mozamjahi market route only to hopefully see if the famous Karachi Bakery is open yet but to find it closed was a heartbreak ( if you know how great the cookies taste, you would nod in acceptance).

We then turned towards Abids and had to struggle a lot to cross the up slope till LB stadium. We then crossed the flyover in a jiffy to liberty crossroads and another flyover in Narayanguda back to my place. The ride back took 30 minutes with one stop near the AP High court and another near LB stadium.

Not to mention the 6 Irani chai’s and 12 Osmania biscuits we gobbled down at a café after the ride, the complete ride was excellent. The weekend was spent in good spirits.

Route: Nallakunta – Barkathpura – Kacheguda – Chaderghat – MGBS – Nayapul – Afzalgunj – Madina – Charminar – Charminar Bus terminus – Charminar – Madina – Puranapul – AP High Court – Afzalgunj – Mozamjahi (MJ) Market – Abids – LB Stadium – Liberty Crossroads – Narayanguda – Barkathpura – Nallakunta.

Distance Covered – 17 Kms.

Time taken – 1:30 Terrain – Excellent roads. A few ups and downs complete with two flyovers.

Bikes: Hero Octane (Mine), Lumala (Srikanth’s)

Few pics below……

The best thing about old buds is that you do not have apprehensions about how your image with them is gonna be….!!! They already know what you are, and so things will start rolling the moment you meet them…. On 25th morning when i set out my foot in Chennai Central and met with two of my roomies from college, the thing that we did was laugh our hearts out…!!! I literally mean it because many people here have seen me smile or at the most laugh a little. While in college i used to laugh my heart out and i was famous for my loud laughter… So much that when i was once laughing in my room in the third floor of the hostel, some seniors in the other wing’s second floor which is a good 100-150 feet away were disturbed and ragged all the people in our room the whole night….!!!

Also you are eager to meet them because you are sure you will have a good time no matter where you are maybe a beach, or a movie or a roadside teashop. One of my friends had to literally fight with his girl friend to come with us. She wanted him to spend the long weekend with her, but since we were meeting after almost 2 years, he did not budge and fought with her finally to come… Friendship sometimes can overcome love…

Also you have no inhibitions while talking with your friends… The most sensitive of the topics too are talked with absolutely no fear of ruffling feathers… Yesterday while returning from a beach in the ECR, my friends Abhishek and Mahesh were having a heated discussion about religion, caste, god and many other things with me as an audience and contributing a little. Mahesh being a strong atheist and Abhishek being a believer of the existence of a power greater than man and the guidelines set by religion had a absolutely heated discussion. Had it been some public forum, some riots must have broken out by now. They were talking from killings in the name of religion to basic irrational thinking introduced in humans in the name of religion or in the matter of fact absolutely anything.

I would like to present a few examples used by them but i do declare here that these are just opinions of a few people i know and not mine. Also i do not comment on the correctness of them as this is a free country and everyone can have his own opinion and can express it.

Mahesh started of with the incident of a MLA claiming to have killed many people during the Gujarat riots. He feels that religion here has been the sole catalyst for the riots and that innocent people have been butchered for some reason they did not even care for. He argued that have those people thought more rationally rather religiously there would not have been riots in the first place. But because religion came into picture, it catalyzed the emotions and rational thinking was on the back seat.
The second thing he said was about the caste system that created barriers among people along with religion. Citing his personal life where he being from a staunch tamilian Iyer family, and his lady love being from a much lower caste, his mom even went to the extent of threatening to kill herself if he proceeded with the relationship. This may look silly to some, but it is still very much prevalent amongst us. He said, if there was no religion there would have not been a division among people in the first place and so everyone would have been equal and so no divides among us. He also feels that parents blindly influence their children with their beliefs without first knowing if what they think is right or wrong. This is where the whole thing starts and grows along with us. He said he too thought in the same way till some years back, but turned around when once saw a gruesome incident on TV.
The third thing he said was about the existence of God. He is a non believer and asks people to think rationally rather than believing that there is someone behind all this. There are some other things he said which are not appropriate to tell here.

Mahesh says that if all these people can be educated by some example the ill effects of this discrimination and can see that it can happen to their near and dear ones, they may not try to do this. He says rational thinking can only be induced into people by educating them about the ill effects of religion. He said that till a few years ago, he too was discriminating on the basis of religion but only started thinking rationally once he started seeing the world with his educated view. He said that his education helped him come out of the various wrong practices that were induced by his parents into him from his childhood. He also says in our country even though adults may be discriminated or labeled on basis of their political/professional practices, the children are still labeled according to religion or caste. He remembers being labeled as an Iyer kid during his school and points out that even though someone’s father is a communist, their kids aren’t labeled as communists but as Hindus or Muslims or Christians. So this discrimination starts from our childhood and is infused into our thinking systems by none other than our parents. Thus the only way to overcome this is to educate people about the ill effects and then ask them to choose out of religion.

His whole argument was that, the people who does all things in the name of religion or caste or god, are uneducated and so irrational. He wanted to educate them the wrong way of their thoughts and this try getting them to see the world as he sees or as he feels the right way to see it.

Now my friend Abhishek stepped in with his argument. According to me he was being more rational in countering this argument. He said that religion was something that was created by man. It was created only as a guideline for a way of life but not as a rule imposing on all. That’s the reason there are many religions today in the world. Also it is seen as a way of life and practices which help us ease our lives.There is no religion on the earth which propagates killing of innocent people or separation of people.

The discrimination, riots and killings in the name of religion is only because of some people’s political agenda and to fulfill their agenda but is not actually what any religion propagates. Also it may not be only a religious issue, there are many other things like region, language, food habits etc that can be used by people to discriminate and thus create problems.

From this point on, they went on a much more deeper and heated discussion while i want to touch upon a few things. The humans some centuries ago were not as big as today we are seeing. There were many less people and thus lot less disparities between people. But as the time rolled on, the population increased and so did the disparities. Then came the time for us to invent something that would bind us and at the same time make us act responsibly due to fear or respect to some greater force. Thus came the concept of God and religion. God is an ultimate power which can do almost anything from creation to destruction and that which watches over. Religion is just a way of life prescribed by the elders of the community which is followed by many to lead a peaceful and calm life. Also it acted as a social binder because there were not many religions and thus people had something common to bind. But as the population expanded, there came into existence various beliefs and thus came new religions. But the sole reason for any religion is to make life as peaceful as possible.

Thus religion acted as a binder between people who are disparate. True, it may be fading a little these days and creating many gorish things these days that actually are not the objective of a religion or faith, but even today religious feeling is the single most important and efficient binding agent. But as time passes there may be changes that are needed, but that cannot be forced on people. That may lead to even more unrest and lead to drastic consequences. Thus i feel, educating people may be the only way to induce rational thinking into them. My education have given me the liberty to think good and bad, and thus recognize the real objective of religious beliefs and practices as a way of life but not as rules of life. They are not rules but guidelines which can be followed for our own good. Maybe when times change, we may have some other binding agent in place of religion which may either replace or supplement religion to help us lead a peaceful life, but that can be attained only through self education rather than someone spoon feeding us.

So please help educate everyone, and help think rationally.

P.S: I am not an atheist, I do believe in God as a supreme power above us.
P.P.S: I am no social reformer, but i believe in reforming self prior to social reforming.
P.P.P.S: Please dont get into heated discussions.

A Citizen Eco Drive, it is a watch which promises less of Lead Batteries from watches to pollute the earth by working on the power derived from Solar Energy.

Picture details:

Nikon D60, f/5.6, Exposure – 1/10 sec, ISO-800, Focal length- 55mm, Centre Metering, Flash: No.

“Can you give me something to eat please? I had not eaten for a week.” a 10 year old child begged for some food.
“Me neither. Please give me something too.” another 12 year old.
“Please”, “Please”, “Please……” He seemed to be surrounded by hundreds of hungry children.

Sevak woke up with a startle.He seem to perspire despite the december chill. He woke up checking the time. It’s 3.45 AM a 15 minutes earlier than his schedule. He still seem worried. He did not get this dream that often these days, but something seemed wrong. He went along his daily chores and fell into his routine of waking the children and help them follow the routine for the day. While in the meditation room, he was disturbed by his friend for life Sameera. And he knew something did happen because this was only the second time in the 15 years they have been together, that Sameera disturbed him while meditating.

When he came out of the meditation hall, he could see a van near the gates of  “Aashray”, a few saffron clad people and also a few reporters. He noticed that among the saffron clad people was Sadguru, the patronizer and personal aide of “Bhole Baba” a widely followed religious and humanitarian personality in the country. That made his suspiscions more concrete. He went to them and enquired what the matter is. And the worst news came thru Sadguru himself.

“Bhole Baba passed away in the night”.
“When” Sevak asked with thoughts about the past clouding him.
“Early in the morning at 3.45 AM”
Sevak’s thoughts came to a pause. He seemed to cry for a moment, but somehow came back to his senses.
Without further delay he nodded towards Sameera and accompanied Sadguru to pay homage to “Bhole Baba”.

This left the reporters with little choice but to cook up a story of their own.
Soon the news channels were broadcasting what happened at “Ashray” as their prime story. There were many speculations as to what a atheist NGO leader like Sevak doing at the ashram of a religious person like Bhole Baba, that too when the Baba was known to be in his final hours. The media has still not known about the demise of Baba. It had been kept a tight secret only to a very few insiders. Even the people waiting in the Ashram were thinking that Baba is still battling his life.

After a few hours the news broke that Bhole Baba was no more and Sevak was to head the Bhole trust and all other organizations under it. The decision was taken with apprehension as Sevak was well known as a atheist and people worried about the future of the trusts. But nothing happened as they feared. The religious activities were held with as much fervour as were the charitable activities. Sadguru and Sevak acted as a team and took forward the ideology forward as a team.

Sevak started his activities with more intensity owing to the deep financial backing of Bhole Baba trust. His ambition that “No child in my country should go hungry” which was a mirage a few years back, seemed to become a reality soon. He extensively travelled across the country along with Sadguru and oversaw the activities of the child homes which were run by the trust. He seemed to get energy out of nowhere. As the years progressed, he could see a steady change. Not many cities had children begging on the streets for alms. They were happily studying and making a future in “Aashray”.

Sevak was now 80 years old. Most of his activities were confined to the ashram. Sadguru passed away only last year. His Sameera left him almost a decade back. Now all the works which involved travel were being taken care of by Asif, a gem of a person who grew in the folds of Aashray. It was december again and the cold was very harsh. Sevak went to bed again. He was suddenly reminded of the dream he used to get so frequently in his youth. He did not get it even once in the last forty years. The last time he got the dream was the night when Bhole Baba passed away.

Sevak slowly slipped into sleep. But his subconscious mind was working with much fervour today. He was having many dreams. About his childhood when he was raised by the streets among the dogs, the first lesson on begging and how he hated it, the pure joy he got after having a peice of bread bought using the money he earned himself by cleaning a shop, how he was adopted by a journalist and then was taken care by him. But the most important parts of his life slowly started coming back to him as a movie.

He was taken to journalism as his adopted father was one famous journalist. He was particularly attracted to investigative journalism where he dared to do anything to expose the evils of people to the society. And being an atheist, he did not take to the religious leaders and babas who he believed duped the people on their religious beleifs and exploited them. According to him one such person was Bhole Baba. He had a very large following among the ordinary and also the wealthy and powerful. He lives in an ashram constructed in a vast area amid much pomp and show. Sevak was determined to show the true colors of Bhole Baba to the world.

He started collecting evidence around the ashram and one night broke into a secret chamber which was used by Bhole Baba to store the things which he can use to prove to the world that Bhole Baba was duping the world. But his luck ran out soon and was caught by Baba’s disciple Sadguru and was locked up in a room. After a while Baba himself came into the room and said that he wanted to talk to him. The conversation and the turn of events that followed changed Sevak’s life for ever.

“Who are you. What do you want here?”
“I am here to expose to the world that you are not a sant but duping them all these days.”
“Do you believe in God?”
“No I dont. I am an athiest.”
“Good! I too donot.”
Sevak was confused by this.
“I want to show you something. And even after that you want to continue your work, I will not oppose you. But whatever i show to you, receive with an open mind. That is my only request.”

A rather bewildered Sevak followed Bhole Baba into the inner folds of the ashram. He was led into a hall, rather a dormitory where almost five hundred children of all ages were sleeping. Bhole Baba lead him to another two such dormitories where there were many children sleeping. He asked Sevak to wait till dawn, and watch the routine. The children’s schedule started at 4′O’clock. After freshing up, they went thru an exercise regime, and an hour of meditation. Then nutritious breakfast was served to them, and then the day’s schooling started. Bhole Baba came to Sevak after his regular bhajan program ended and aked him about things he saw. Sevak was partly mellowed down by then and he asked Baba to explain what he saw. Bhole Baba started the story of his life.

“I was a street urchin from the time i remember. I neither remeber seeing my parents nor anyone who took care of me. As i grew older, i struggled each and every day for a meal. There were weeks together that i went without a meal. I saw other street children struggle like me. I saw death because of hunger. There were two things that i observed people feared and liked. Its Money and God. I decided that i needed to make use of the so that not many other children did not suffer a childhood trauma like I did. So i started duping people in the name of god and the power of money. Never did i take anything from poor people or people who believe blindly. I only saw that whatever the bigshots duped the people was returned to them atleast in a part. As my following increased, so did the donations.

Today most of the dishonest politicians and businessmen who believe that they are really doing wrong in duping people of their hard earned money, come to me and donate huge sums thinking that it will lead them to salvage. Not that i believe it, but i am sure they will one day rot in hell. But the money they give is very much needed in my mission. As a child i used to get many nightmares. But the worst of all nightmares i got is that when i had a piece of bread in my hand, i am surrounded by hundreds of hungry children asking me to give me something to eat. So my mission of life was to never let a child go hungry. Today a thousand children here and another thousand in the other ashram are being taken care of.

So finally what i have to say is, If you expose me to the world, I donot have much to lose. But these children will be back on the streets. So take a decision which seem right to you.”

With that Bhole Baba left, and Sevak was left to his own thoughts. When he started leaving the ashram, no one stopped him. He could hear the happy voices of children ringing in his ears till he reached home. He remained in a daze the whole day. Then in his sleep, he got the same dream which Baba described, for the first time. He woke up startled and then made a decision which changed the coarse of his life.

His career may have been boosted by exposing Bhole Baba, but it would end up with many children back on the streets. Not all people can be like his father and he too cannot take care of many. He decided that he would start a place where he would according to capacity take care of street children. He set up “Aashray” and his life too now had a goal. As for his intention to expose Bhole Baba, he felt some wrongs should be left alone on their own “For the greater good”.

P.S: This post is not meant to offend anyone. The views reflected are purely imaginatory.

Yesterday the weather was pleasant… The sky seem a little cloudy, a cool breeze grazing over the roads and the sweet smell of mud reminding of the wonderful rains… The western ghats are so beautiful to live in….

As usual after work, i boarded the bus back home… I dozed off only to be awaken by the time the bus reached my stop… As everyday i got down near Parihar chowk and started walking back to my place… Daily this small walk connects me with the hustle and bustle of the vegetable market… But what really draws me is the old guava seller who sits outside the market with his small basket of guavas… The sight of him reminds me of an incident that filled me with joy and changed me for ever…

He is a typical maharahtrian, dressed in a white kurta and dhoti with a cap on his head… He doesn’t even bring a lot of guavas… Every day its only a 25 to 30 pieces… And my love for the fruit makes me buy one at least… So everyday i walk to him, take one guava and eat it on the way home… I particularly love the ripe ones golden in color and sweet in taste… Many a times, his fruits are sold by the time i reach in the evening… I still go to him to see if anything is left… He says he has nothing is left for today…

Sometimes i notice that he has one ripe fruit hidden in his pocket… One particular day, i very much wanted to have a guava having missed it for the last four days… He says that he has not got any, but i persist saying he has one hidden in his pocket… He says no, and surprisingly starts walking away…

I was equally surprised and left thinking he must have something else on his mind… But this same thing repeated for a few more times, each time me offering him more than he can earn the whole day… I was even ready to give 1000 bucks for a single guava but was not able to get it from him… That was the day i decided i must find out what he does with that guava…

I took a day off the next day, and waited in my car near the market… After i saw that all his guavas are sold, i walked to him and asked for one… As usual he refused saying he has got none left…. Now since i knew he must be having one with him for sure, i again offered him a thousand bucks for the last one… He refused and started collecting his things to leave…

I walked back to my car, and started following him… He slowly cycled back towards the Mumbai highway… He reached the outskirts and turned into a small farm off the highway… I got out and walked into the farm… I walked through the small mud road to a house surrounded by all sorts of trees… Beautiful fruits hanging from them tempting one to pluck and relish… But what attracted me is the sight of two large guava trees… Both were laden with guavas, waiting to be relieved from the weight…

I noticed a small hut near the end of the farm and a light flicker through the window… Though i know its not correct, i could not contain myself and became a peeping tom… The sight i saw there struck me like a blow… The guava seller was seated along with his wife, and was enjoying the fruit sharing with her…..

I silently got away from the window and returned back to my home… I was in a daze till my wife shook me to my senses…. I realized what i was missing in life… I have been too materialistic and missed small joys of love and companionship… Thats what we need all the time, but not money… How do you feel in your old age if you sit alone in your house with your wife going away to her friends place or her ladies club because she was never used to spend time with you…

The next day, I was back to the guava vendor, bought a guava, but instead of munching it on the way back home, i took it to home only to enjoy the simple joy of sharing some time with my sweetheart…

P.S: I do like guavas…
P.P.S: I’m not married, this is my imagination only…

The Village – Part 1
The train left Secunderabad station slowly… I was looking as the building slowly went past my window. The ever familiar Hanuman temple was full with devotees as usual… With the sun slowly sinking past the horizon my thoughts took me to the happenings of the past few days…

I am a typical Indian engineering graduate. As the case with any engineer, i too joined a software mnc after my graduation and earned a peppy package which is more than required for my needs and my age… My parents are both working too… They struggled so much in life to lift our family from the lower strata of the society to a comfortable living… Seeing their struggle i was determined to work hard in life to make them comfortable…

I started working overtime to impress my bosses and jump up the ladder soon… I worked day and night for a long stretch… I do not know from when but i started feeling low…I suddenly realized that i was missing something in life… I was missing my life…!!

My ever caring parents noticed the change in me and talked me out… I poured out all my woes to them… Who else do i have..? I do not have a girl friend, my best friends are all abroad pursuing their studies, and with no siblings I am almost alone…

Then my dad came up with a solution… He asked me to take a vacation.. A long one this time… He wanted me to visit his cousin brother, who lives in a village in coastal Andhra pradesh… He wants me to spend my time there and rejuvenate myself…

This was the first time i would be traveling to that place… Its the place where the roots of my family lies… Its the place where my Vedula ancestors lived for 4 centuries after migrating from down south… Its the place where the journey of my life is intertwined with…!!! Its the place where i would be starting tomorrow for a month…!!!

I slowly dozed off with various thoughts of how the next day would be…

Its been a long time since I posted anything here on my external blog. Mainly because i was actively blogging on my company’s internal blogsphere. But from now on i want to update this too….

So people can expect a much more regular crapping from me……

I happened to attend a session on Time management by one of the seniormost managers of my company “Shiv”. He is the head of a development centre, a divisional manager for two units. He is a busy man. But he says he manages to go home daily by the 5.15 bus.

When i first heard him, i thought my ears must be playing jokes with me..But no..!!! He says he leaves to home by the 5.15 bus 80% times. Only 20% times he stays back due to unavoidable works.

The golden rules he proposed to manage our time are many. They are not bullets, not agendas to be planned nor things to be avoided but simple practises which help one to manage one’s time effectively….

The first and foremost thing to be followed is to excel for 80% of the time and to provide a 20% failure buffer….That is 80% of the times you will successfully finish the work, but 20% buffer is to be there in order to manage unavoidable situations……

The example of a smoking quitter explains things……As a part of new year resolutions, many wanna quit smoking….They hold on very patiently till 4-5 days, till a friend pops out of nowhere and takes them along to smoke……They smoke out of habit and the next day onwards, they go even without the friend, or take along another person who made the same resolution……

The real failure is not the one time he smokes with his friend, but continues to do so even without his friend….He is successful in giving up smoking even if he smokes for a day in a week as 1/7 is less than 20%, which is the buffer one can allow for failures…..

Another thing he said is about unnecessary meetings, status reports, consolidated reports….

He refused to take any status reports from his subordinates unless he specifically asks them…..He says if u donot trust in the man u allot the work to, its as good as u urself doing all the work…..

The unnecessary meetings come as a very big headache, as one cannot dare enough to say one the face of one’s boss that he feels that what is going on il bullshit……He said that to his boss and opted out of the meeting…….Nothing happened…..!!!!

Consolidated reports are another thing which he avoided….The day he took over as the divisional manager, he did not send a report to one of the directors he reports to…..He got a call from the directors secratory asking about the report to be sent……He asked if the director asked for it,…..No….!!!!! Its the secratory whoz asking for it…….. He said “Let the director ask for it….Ill then send it…..” Two years since this happened, the director never bothered to ask about it…….

So a little courage to face things, you can keep 50% of your time free for yourself and in that remaining 50% he gives talks to the yourger generations in the company……

The only fact that he is still in the company after doing all these, and the company allows him to tell all these to us, means that what he says is absolutely correct and can be followed……

He openly challenged one guy in the room if he can avoid the work he thought of doing that day(which is really unnecessary) and play squash as he likes it……!!!!! The guy hung his head…..

So it takes a lot of self determination and the will to leave some things which need not be done for the sake of being done, one can manage a kings portion of one’s time to do things we like……!!!!!!

I liked his talk a lot and planning to do not all, but atleast some of what can be done as to start with……!!!!!!!

Off late i have been a little lax in reading novels because of a little sluggishness on my part. Last week when i came across a novel Lashkar in Strand, little did i think about buying it…. Had i not bought it, i would’ve missed a wonderful feeling…..

Ever as i child i liked the commando movies where the hero’s team moved as death itself and rescued innocent people, while cutting necks without being known to eyes….Im not a violence lover but somehow liked movies which have a strike quality in them……My favourite movie in that category being “Executive Decision”..

But i always used to wonder why donot Indian film makers make such movies….Is it that Indian armed forces lack the capabilities (which my patriotic mind would ward off the idea itself) or our people do not like such stuff…..Are they always into guy after a girl and both running after trees, smooching and some stupid uncensored stuff…..!!!!!

Lashkar came in a time where i had not much of work…..I saw the cover page and the design caught attention and also made clear the theme has something to do with India-Pakistan….I read along the storyline which got me more engrossed and the next moment i fished for my card and swiped it along the clerks machine for a 200 bucks……

When i started reading, i thought that this is a good book……The backdrop being the Delhi blasts which killed many a innocent victims, made my blood to raise its temperature…..The narrative starts along with a guy who goes to pakistan for terror training and returns to india after it to create havoc…..Though the writer put a disclaimer about the strategies used, the technological prowess of the army…, such things do not come without some real happenings….

The united stand of the usually crooked political leaders, the firm decision to retariate by a peace loving and humble prime minister, the coolness of the armed forces heads all put me in awe of the way the narration was…..The novel did not emphasize on a single hero but had many which is also very gud….Else it would’ve looked like many a movie which we are bored with…..

The plot which is not explicitly mentioned by, but beautifully unfolded as the novel proceeds……We can guess for sure who are on the hit list with a little of general knowledge…..

The pace at which the novel moves keeps one glued to the pages.

So all in all its a very gud book as per me and i recomment one to read it for sure…….!!!!!!

New year 2008 started with an incident i always avoid…… A traffic ticket……

Though i’ve been driving in Hyderabad from childhood, Chennai in college days and Bangalore too recently, I somehow managed to escape a traffic ticket till date……But my luck ran out today somehow…… Though notoriously famous for giving traffic tickets and towing away vehicles, I managed never get into the clutches of the Hyderabad traffic police….

I set to go to pay my mobile bill due in a few days to a nearby place…. I paid my bill using my credit card which saved me from much embarrassment and hard work later…..I wuz on my dad’s bike as i dropped him in the nearby temple while coming here……

Planning to take my sis a few chocolates on new year eve, i wuz thinking nothing when a cop appeared out of nowhere and asked me to pull over…….Experienced previously what cops do when they ask people to stop, i immediately stopped, locked the bike and held the key in my hand….

The cop(must be a educated guy) asked me politely to show my driving license and the vehicles registration certificate…..I took out my license and handed over it to him and started rummaging in the junk my dad kept in the box below da seat……I found a couple of his files, a pair of chappals(LOLZ) a raincoat, a tool kit and a few papers……I saw the papers…..They happened to be an expired insurance certificate, an expired Pollution under control(PUC) certificate……The RC was missing…..The first thing that came into my mind was that this was not my day…….!!!!!

The cop asked again to search leisurely as though it would pop out of nowhere……The things turned out so bad that i happened to leave my mobile at home and even my dad left both of his mobiles at home as he went to a temple…..I did not dare to call home and ask my mom as she would first shower me with the choicest of “praises” and then get worried as hell…..

In all vain i looked at the cop and said that i do not have the RC, i do not have a cell phone to call home, and that I’m helpless……..He said unless u pay the fine we’d take the bike to the PS…..That is the last thing i can let him do as bikes which go to the PS generally do not come in one piece…..So i asked him to take him to the Inspector…..

The Inspector(another gud guy as he was polite too) asked my name and my fathers name, first wrote on a ticket and then started questioning me looking at my license…… He asked the constable what the problem with my case was…..The guy repeated the above things that i do not have a RC, was holding an expired PUC and insurance certificate…….The inspector gave me a look which delivered all sort of feelings like disgust, happiness, greed etc…….

He asked me where the documents are……I explained that this was my dad’s bike and I wuz pretty much unaware how he maintained the docs…..He generally have all the originals with him so must have forgotten to place a copy in the bike…..But was unable to explain the lapsed PUC and insurance……He asked the constable if i was wearing a helmet which i always do when i drive…..The constable answered in the affirmative and so he cooled down a bit…….He then asked me what i did……I said i wuz working with “*******”…..

He must have been thinking me as a street thug or a big mafia don owing to my look……But when i uttered the name of my company his looks changed thanks to the brand image my company has…..”What is it…..???” were the words from him next…….”Its a software company…..!!!!” was my immediate reply……..He took me for a complete fool for the answer as what he meant with the question was “How can people working in respectful places be irresponsible like this…???” which later struck me and i laughed for my dumbness…….

He then showed me two sections for which i can be fined for 600 bucks……I immediately put the dumbest face i could muster and said i have only 300 bucks so please fine me anything less than that………He thought for a moment and fined me for the same 300 bucks i had in pocket and gave the receipt to me…….

I silently handed over him the cash and said THANKS……It must be the first time a person thanked him after being fined and so he gave me another “What a weirdo” look…….I even thanked the constable out of habit and left the scene immediately hoping this would not repeat again………

So this is the start of my new year with a traffic ticket which i hope would be my first and last………

A small advice to people “Always wear a helmet while driving a bike, and always put on a seat belt while driving a car…..”

So with this friends, follow the traffic rules, do not jump signals, drive safely, get home in one piece…..This is for the safety of you as well as all the people on the roads…….

Thats it for now……..

Au revoir….Bonne nuit…..