The story of Hyderabad !

Hyderabad - Year of 2005

I had to go to Bombay to meet my family. Not that I had not been assigned any job by my boss to finish in Bombay. 

Scene one: It was raining heavily in Hyderabad and all the roads were full of accumulated water. This had caused one of the biggest traffic jams I had ever seen. I rushed from the company to reach my home, picked my already packed bag and left from there. I walked to the main road and started trying to stop the auto rickashaws. The destination was railway station. All the auto rickshaws were full with passengers. Despite trying hard I could not find one. I decided to walk to the next cross road in anticipation of finding a vacant one but all in vain. I kept walking and was getting wet because of rain. My bag was also getting wet and was causing more problems to carry it. 

Finally I gave up and stopped at the next cross road and started to stop the rickshaws again. Again the same thing ! None of them were empty. They were going in front of my eyes at speed less than the walking speed with so many passengers. Suddenly I saw one of them which a girl had hired. Looking into her eyes, I gave a look of grief thinking " Oh man, today I will miss the train." Probably she read the looks in my eyes and anticipated that I wanted to rush to the railway station. She took pity on me. 

She asked the rickshaw to stop and asked me to board it as well. She knew that her destination was on the way to the railway station. We started talking about each other's jobs, and things and I told her that I was going to meet my family. She wished me luck to catch the train. In those 15 mins we talked a lot and actually shared each other's phone numbers too. That was a time when I used SMSs more than phone calls. So after dropping her off, the rickshaw took me to the station for me to find a platform leaving train. I had a policy to not board a running train, so I just felt sorry and came out . 

Scene two : Here comes the Hyderabad spirit now !! Finding me coming out of the station when the train had just left, another rickshaw driver approached me saying - " saab...is station se choot gayi koi baat nahi agle station par train pakadwa dete aapko ". And I was thinking how on earth this guy was going to match the speed of a train(of course the train would stop there) with a rickshaw on a traffic jam road. He said - " aao saab 100 Rs de do train mil jaye to ...nahi mile to kuch bhi nahi dena ! ". 

"Wait a second ! I thought, not a bad deal". I had missed the train. I hired him on that promise. I sent an SMS to my family saying " Do not expect me, I missed the train." and one another to the girl saying " oh no :( I missed my train , but boarded another rickshaw which might let me catch it on the next station. " 

She did reply back " Sorry to hear that, but ya ! all the best. Do let me know if you board the train. Either ways, I will meet you later. " 

Scene three : Now comes the Schumacker ! Man...I had no idea that the rickshaw driver knew all Hyderabad ki galliyan and was driving as if participating in a race. And if you are reading, you might have guessed it correctly that I indeed made it to the station, boarded the train about a minute in time. " Relax first " I said to myself. Then I actually called her up ! 

" Hi again ! thats me !! " in a much excited voice this time. " You know I boarded the train. ". " Congrats " she said and the we talked for a while and then the next morning I reached Bombay. After I returned I was caught up with work and later I came to US in about a month. So I could never keep in touch with her. 

Scene four : Today she added me on facebook. " Man !! She remembered my name, my hall of fame and what not ". Thanks my dear friend for remembering me. What a feeling !! Not to forget! Good job Facebook !

Much love, Rohit