My, unforgettable, Hyderabad days!
You may remember the days, while I was working in Hyderabad and you grew up from a primary school student to a science graduate.
Out of those twenty plus years, for close to six years, I and my colleagues commuted between home and office in a chartered van. It took 45 minutes to an hour one way. During those 45 Minutes, we discussed a variety of issues starting from domestic violence to world wars, Office politics to national politics, stockmarkets to World Bank transactions. Other common topics of discussion were Literary discussions, Religion, Spirituality, Poetry, quiz, pun and stories. The list is quite long.
The narration and short stories you find are a few important ones among what we discussed.Every day would be a special day. Some times people who did not travel in our route regularly opted to travel with us for the fun that could be found nowhere else.
Some one travelling in the van asked one day, “who is Van Hussain?” Several people in the van answered in one voice. “It is simple. It is a brand name of trousers! It could be the promoter of the brand”.
The man who asked the question, said, “You are all wrong”. He continued, “It is our new driver of this van, called Hussein”.
Some times we had some problems too.
While we returned home in the evening, I would be among the last couple of commuters.As the people alighted on the way, we used to remove our footwear / shoes,fold our legs and have a chit chat.
One evening, as the van arrived at my stop, it was already dark. I slipped my feet into a pair of footwear and reached home.
Hardly ten minutes went by. The phone at home rang. There was an angry voice at the other end. For some time I did not understand what his problem was.
He directed me to see if I have a complete pair of my chappals. I said, yes I wore and walked home. Then I discovered that one of my chappals had been exchanged with his.
I told him coolly, don’t worry, we will rectify the mistake on the following day.I had no problem walking with different footwear in each foot. May be, it invited the attention of some on the way. It did not matter to me at all. Some might have laughed. A few others might remember that incident for a few more days.
But my friend, I understand, cannot take any of these.On the following day, he wore a fresh pair of footwear and packed one of my footwear in a news paper. That packet was brought in a plastic cover.
The following morning and evening, this incident was discussed and the van was filled with laughter.There was a different perspective to that incident. It was found that only two out of 14 persons had no problem in walking with such a pair of chappals. The rest of them felt too awkward to walk using such a pair of footwear as it made them appear as a joker.
We discussed various ways of diverting others’ attention from our feet (with different designs of foot wear).
It was one of the most hilarious discussions we have had in the van.