Sunday Double Treat

Whenever civic authorities in Hyderabad undertake road repairs or pipeline laying or desilting drains they want the whole world to know. Which is why one finds trenches dug for laying pipes remaining open for days if not weeks together, material for laying roads lying on the road side for years together, silt taken out from drains piled just near the manholes and things like that everywhere. It is as if they are holding an exhibition. On Sunday I happened to see one such exhibition when I was on my way to Necklace Road to my monthly morning routine. Mounds of silvery garbage taken out of the Hussainsagar Lake was piled on the pavements on the NTR Garden side road. It looked like the mounds of trash have been lying for days together. Luckily the scene was not similar on the Necklace Road.

It was a cloudy morning at Necklace Road and I got only a peek at the sun rising from behind the towering clouds. Some kind of black birds swam in circles on the placid surface of the Hussainsagar lake. My mind too was clouded with too many things especially the minor upheaval resulting from my posting at a distant place. It would take some time for me to settle down, and also get used to the idea that I cannot be with my family the whole week.

Afterwards I sat in Adarsh with the Sunday papers and spent an hour reading them and also inhaling cigarette smoke. The same fellow who irritated me a long time back was at his usual place, sipping tea and coolly smoking a cigarette. I guess it is his morning routine so I let him be and concentrated on reading the paper while he bid good bye to his lungs puff by puff.

Later in the day at Abids, it was a near washout with a sudden shower drenching all the books on the pavements. I hate it when books get spoilt in any manner. From someone whose books were not damaged by the rain, I picked up the April 2009 issue of Lonely Planet Magazine. I had no idea that LP brought out a magazine also and it was a surprise finding it at Abids. I got the magazine for only thirty rupees. The writing in Lonely Planet Magazine was good and the photographs were great only the format was a bit odd. It was too large I felt compared to the size of my regular find, Conde Nast Traveller.

I had also seen a nice, hardcover copy of Elmore Leonard’s ‘Glitz’ but I did not buy it. I will pick it up if I find it next week.