The Story of An Uncomfortable Journey

Kerala is a state apart in India. This is one place where the government is under continuous scrutiny over things both right and wrong. Everyone feels restrained - as if someone is always watching you. If not the big brother, your neighbour, or the creep who has been staring at his mobile for the past half an hour. Probably he will upload a video of yours on youtube if he gets a chance.

Still there are hilarious people, as I found during the train journey from Hyderabad to Kollam on Onam eve this time. A perfectly well dressed man who was drunk wanted my opinion on his song which was about to be released. When I told him I had no interest in his songs and that I would pull the chain if he continued his absolutely torturous singing, he apologized and moved away. The remaining passengers got together to ensure the safety of my fellow passenger and mine thereafter. "After all", they said, "he is drunk. But really, women these days are very brave. What can they do? How much can they run too? They too have a right to live."

The discussion soon turned to the Delhi rape case. An old man who was coming back from a political rally in Delhi, said this: "They had to be hung. There was no other way it was going to end. So much of pressure and hype was built up."He continued:"But you can't blame the men alone in such cases. The behaviour of women in Delhi too is not in accordance with our tradition."

I felt like laughing aloud at the old man and arguing with him. But that, I felt, would be pointless. He has not much of his life ahead of him and it is too late to change his set of ideals. What we need really are mothers teaching their sons to respect women as individuals so that they do not grow up to be old men like him.

One of my friends in Railways called up the Railway Protection Force when I messaged her about the scene the man was creating. They were fairly quick in their response and came into the compartment as soon as the train stopped at the next station. It made me fairly confident about travelling in trains.

I was thinking after the incident on why I was so angry with the man. He had done nothing legally wrong. He had asked me about my opinion on a video he had made which I refused to watch. On his repeating his request, I neatly scared him by threatening to pull the chain.

The actual mistake is this: Refusing to understand that nobody has a right to invade my privacy, even in a public place, without my permission. And people need to learn to be graceful when they rightly get ticked off for unreasonable behaviour. In short, we need to be ladies and gentlemen. Or at least try to be.

The Fun Comes

Two of my batchmates have joined the Hyderabad office too. We are all brand new DAsG posted to 'tough charges' on our first posting. However, the experience has been really great till now, thanks to the wonderful bosses we are having.

I like my boss. She has let me settle down and has asked me to take my own time to learn things. It means a lot to me at present. She has also been guiding me. My seniors too have been really great. I am always calling up someone or the other when I have a doubt. Thank God for communication networks!

Academy has been great too. Whether filing an FIR for my lost laptop or giving me advice on how to handle problems at work, the Directors have been really helpful. I can't believe I wanted to get out of Shimla.

I am going home on Saturday for Onam. I hope we all will have a great time. I have a week with nothing much to do which appears to be great now. There was a time when I desperately wanted to do something but could not find anything to do.

I have finally come to the conclusion that the One Above really loves me a lot. Thank you.

Missing you all!

Hyderabad appears to be pretty boring after the wonderful tines we had at Shimla. It is not the problem with the place per se, but with the people you interact with. In Shimla, our two batches had a combined strength of around forty. So there never was a dull moment. And I had a roommate. Here, being all alone in a huge apartment, with not a soul to talk to, is not a very happy situation. Moreover, it has been raining since morning, confining me in my room.

I had always wished to get out of Shimla thinking it will be better outside. How wrong I was. For all the good food I am having here, I am sorely missing the company of my friends. And I finally recognize that it is the company of your friends and family that makes your life enjoyable. Neither money nor fame has got anything to do with it.

I feel blessed for all the great friends and the absolutely wonderful family that I have got. Would never trade my place with anyone else in the world. I need to find friends in Hyderabad and I hope I soon will.

Hello Hyderabad!

It has been a week since I landed here. Life has been hectic and I have seen Hyderabad in a way never shown to me before - the lives of ordinary men and women in constant struggle to live their lives with dignity and happiness.

I sincerely believe that the state of public transport in a city roughly shows the regard the state has for its citizens. It shows the power of citizens to bargain and get want it wants - the means to mobility that is so vital in an economy. When the state fails, public transport virtually becomes non- existent, only to be replaced entirely by private sector which may or may not be kind enough to the lower strata of the society.

The importance of public transport in cities of India cannot be overstated. They are the means by which a vast majority of the population commute to their workplace. The local trains of Mumbai and the Metro rail in Delhi havr virtually become the lifelines of those cities.

That said, the neatness in publuc transport roughly correlates with the civic sense of the people and the commitment of the government towards the welfare of the people. The behaviour you observe in a local train or bus is characteristic of the city too. You need not do an analysis to deduct that Delhi is a dangerous place to live in for women. Just travel in the metro and have a look at the number of people staring at a woman travelling alone. That is the time when you feel thankful for the surveillance cameras.

Hyderabad has a reasonably good public transport system with buses plying to all parts of the city. I have not yet travelled by the local trains here and so I am not qualified to comment on them.

Any reasonable person can find out how rich or poor the general working population of a city is by looking at the cleanliness of its most popular form of transport. Delhi could claim to be rich or at least middle class by the standard. Mumbai is definitely middle class. Kolkatta is a dying city looking at the old taxis plying on its roads. Hyderabad is a city with a vast population of poor people who take the public transport to their workplace.

It is the duty of a government to provide a reasonably clean means of public transport to its citizens no matter how rich or poor they are. It is a matter of respecting human dignity, if nothing else. It is a fundamental facility to be ensured if the government actually wants to be a facilitator of development.

At Qilaa

Life has become a bit boring, of late. We were planning to go to Kinnaur but the heavy rains poured cold water over all our plans. Being confined to Shimla now, I have decided to try out as many eateries as possible here.

So I have ended up at Qilaa at Shimla for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to find the good old Shawarma listed in the menu. However, having decided that it would be too much of an adventure to ask for it in the first trial, I have ordered a chicken biriyani.

Chicken biriyani usually acts as the measure by which I grade a non-vegetarian restaurant. And masala dosa for south Indian vegetarian. I have not yet developed a measure for north Indian vegetarian as I am not a great fan.

After eating the biriyani, I can say that this is one of the better restaurants in Shimla. It has a quaint, old world look - an HMV gramaphone, a Victoria station clock, bagpipe and all. And the food has been good.

Trying shawarma next time.

The Shimla Experience

Whenever I meet my seniors in the service, they start talking about their wonderful stay at Yarrows. That always made me wonder as I have never found Shimla enticing enough to hold me back. I have always held it to be self-evident that no sane person can enjoy the place for a duration of more than two weeks. Unless you are from Himachal, of course. After all, there are only limited avenues of entertaining yourself in the erstwhile summer capital of British India. It seems insane that the Brits chose this place to rule over the subcontinent. And more insane that we continue to have our training in a place almost literally cut off from the rest of the country.

When you enter Yarrows, you feel transported back in time. If it were not for the electrical equipment and wi-fi routers, one would have seriously imagined meeting Jinnah near his old bedroom at Room No. 6.

Unfortunately, Yarrows is not haunted. A ghost would definitely have made things far more interesting. One lives in luxury in Yarrows to compensate for the near isolation of the place. We have fabulous, grand rooms; room service is pretty good and the environment is breathtakingly beautiful and for me, jarringly peaceful. I thrive on noise.

The only people you meet here, however, are only bureaucrats, officials or finance professionals with a sprinkling of human beings of other varieties. I do not know why but I found them to be a bit freaky, especially the fourth group. A noted Gandhian had come here. She was near maniacal in her love for him. Gandhi happened to live here in a buildung for a couple of days when he had come to Shimla. If she had her way, she probably would have declared it a national monument. Respect for Gandhi is one thing, and this was a totally different thing.

We need to learn to embrace our heroes as they are - with their failings and mistakes. No one is perfect. Learn from their goodness and spread it around.

It was nearly twenty months of sheer madness and I would not have survived but for my friends, both new and old. I know that I haven't pleased everyone but I have tried my best to deliver all the time. So I hope to leave the place without regrets. My best wishes to the future batches of IA&AS. Live long and prosper. May force be with you.