I am from kerala, but my work has brought me here to Hyderabad and I have been calling it home for the past one and half years. Now, i forgive you, if you thought that i am starting with an ever familiar movie story line. Sorry, nope, the title is to be visually interpreted. Hyderabad is a beehive of activity, and i certainly feel the city has the highest population density among the cities in India. If you can make the walk through the road passing through the front of the Secunderabad railway station and not crash into a fellow pedestrian, you certainly deserve a noble prize for it (i know nobels are given for the achievements of the highest order in certain fields, but let’s add walking to it for the time being).
This is bearable, but then what is not is not that this stretch requires you to have the nimbleness of a squirrel to negotiate it. And why so? SPIT!
Yes you read it correct; it’s the human secreted spit that shows its form in such a varied form of existence. The Hyderabadi’s really like their paan i think. Inspired, I guess, from the portrayal of the banarasi paan chewing don of the yesteryear’s by BigB, or maybe his later incarnation in the form of SRK, the people have seriously taken it upon themselves to give them a run for their money. In this they have certainly given us something to run from!
Be it the young or the aged, the rich or the poor, chewing paan and spitting on the road looks like their favorite pastime. Each time I go out, I visualize myself entering a field swamped with gun toting fanatics. Except that their preferred choice of weapon is not a Smith & Wesson, but the infamous paan aiming for its next victim. Twice, by god’s grace and sheer nimble footedness, i have escaped the tirade. I sincerely hope i don’t get a third time lucky.
Anyone planning to be a pedestrian here, I would sincerely advice you to take some courses from the gait displayed by the effervescent malayalam comedian, Kutharavattan Pappu , in the movie Manichitrathazhe(this one’s strictly for the malayalees out there). Hyderabadi’s, I have nothing against you and i love the city. But at this rate, you are in certain contention to be the spit capital of India, if not the world!