Extreme cycling & coconut juice

Beware: this is a rambling kinda post.

Cycling the ups and downs of hyderabad is a surefire way of battling the blues. Came across an almost 45deg incline. If anybody wants to check that place, it is at left turn on the road from Film Nagar towards Jubilee Hills check post.

Observation: Hyderabad has very few cycle repair/cycle puncture shops. Does it show the development of the people. Also on a related note, I was late for office and decided to chuck my cycle and take ‘lift’. But to my dismay 3 guys just passed me. Also could see none of the usual shared autos. (don’t ask I live in a black hole within hyderabad). Also on a related note, will soon write a post about my bullet renovation blues, which will be titled, “Oh Ramalu, bada dukh deena”. My mechanic is named Ramalu, you see. So back to getting a ride to office. The fourth person downshifted his gears before reaching me and stopped. I gave him a grateful smile and hopped on. He asked me, where do I work. I told him. The second question was, “how much do you earn?” I gave him some random number. He says, “Itna paisa hona fir bhi lift lena . yahan ke logan 5 hazaar bhi kamaata hai, uske gaand ke neeche bike hona”. On hearing which I gave some more of my daily curses to Ramalu Anna. Remember this was a diversion from the main post.  Back to it.

One thing good about hyderabad is its cheap coconut sellers. I had always wondered, why coconuts cost the same in Delhi, Goa and Cochin. In fact my friend asked a coconut seller in Goa, how come it is so expensive when there was a coconut tree laden with fruits 2 meters from us. On which he said, “Toh chad ke tod leejiye”. So anyway in Hyderabad coconuts start at Rs 5. That is what the signages written on the inverted white pieces of bigger placards say. But more often than not, when a person stops his bike or car, it so happens that the smaller Rs 5 version is exhausted. Only the 10 and 15 Rs ones are left. Today was one such day. I was thirsty as hell, and did not mind one bit about the 10 Rs coconut which was very sweet too. While I was drinking it slowly, savoring the various flavors, a man stopped next to the coconut vala. He was around 35ish and had his around 10 year old son on his back carrier. He looked like a hard working man. He asked the hawker for a 5 Rs coconut. The hawker told him that the smaller ones were finished. On which the father son pair looked disappointed. And started walking back towards their cycle. The coconut man rushed back towards his small mound of stuff, sacks and coconut husks and what not, and searching through it, yelled a ‘eureka’. Maybe this drama was for my benefit. Anyway, the father took the beheaded coconut and gave it to his son. His son took 2-3 swigs and held his hand back towards his father. He wanted his father to have some too. The father shook his head, saying no. But the kid wouldn’t take no for an answer. Father finally took the coconut and took a formal, but a savoring swig. And gave it back to the son. The son must have known that the father obviously would have loved some more, and so he again pushed it back towards him. Father now brought his angry eyes to play, on which the kid finished whatever few drops were left.

My day was made.

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