Small Town Big Hearts

A long time ago I made the pleasant discovery that being a Hyderabadi, after all, has some uses. I happened to make this unexpected discovery, not when I was in Hyderabad but when I was quite far away from it. I found that being a city dweller brings its own benefits especially when one works in small towns. I learnt first hand that the towns maybe small but the hearts are big. More than a decade and half ago I was staying in a very small town, smaller than Suryapet in fact. It was there that I first experienced the generous nature of villagers and small town people. It may sound ordinary to anyone else but I chose to call it the bighearted nature.

In Suryapet not a day passes for me without getting a glimpse of the big heartedness of the people of this small town that’s my home for most of the week. Just because I am from Hyderabad I get subjected to some special treatment one has to see to believe. I see it first thing in the morning when the guy in my regular hotel greets me with a smile, a cup of tea and the day’s paper untouched by anyone. I get my tea in a clean, porcelain cup and not in a tiny plastic container that others get. It makes me feel special. I see it when the elderly woman who is my landlord herself brings me water in a bucket when the taps run dry. I see it when she tells her maidservant to sweep my room when my maidservant fails to turn up.

I see it when the young and active person who I guess is Anand of Anand Café greets me with a broad smile when I walk in for a cup of ginger tea in the evening. I see it in the way the cup is filled to the brim with hot tea without a drop spilt in the saucer. I see it in the way they put the cup before me, gently and lovingly which is not something one gets to see often at the Irani joints in Hyderabad. I see this bigheartedness in the way the guy at the internet café clears a cabin for me when I step in to browse the internet. I feel happy at the way I am made to feel special even though I haven’t told many people that I am from Hyderabad. Maybe there’s something about certain guys from Hyderabad that puts them apart from the rest of the crowd.