"Freshen up, saaar?"

I love going for field visits. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction, of having done something with my day and not just frittered it away in front of the computer searching for movie news and online friends to pester. I especially love the journey part. I now have a Tata Sumo to travel in and though the seat is a little bit acute angled towards the front, I still like to travel in it. While going from one place to another, you are not actually doing anything, but you are still working. I love that aspect of field visits. It feels like I am on a mission, about to do some work at the end of the journey, but all I am doing is sitting on my ass and watching the Nalamala forests go by. And after every 50 km, I instruct my driver to pull over for tea and a smoke. I try to lengthen the car journey as much as I can.

Though it feels a little saddening when the journey ends, I like the attention I get when I reach my field offices. "Saar", "Namaste", and other wishes can be heard. But there are a few things that get on my nerve now and then.

The first is the freshening up process. Anywhere I go, the staff will start pointing to the toilet and ask "Freshen up, saaar?". First few times I thought they meant to ask whether I wanted to wash my face, so I would start walking towards the washbasin. The staff would suddenly have this strange look on their face when they would see me walk towards the basin and not towards the toilet. After a few hit and trials, I understood that by freshening up they actually were asking whether I wanted to use the toilet. Dudes, I am 26 yrs old, if I wanted to pee, I would. I wouldnt need to ask you where one goes to freshen up. I know, washbasin is for washing face and toilet is for peeing. I know its not the other way round.

The second thing that irritates me is the press. They invariably turn up before me at the field office, and they have standard questions to which I now have started having a disliking for. "How many districts NREGA is being provided under?", "What is saar's name?", "Saaar ku telugu raadu?", blah blah blah, I do not know telugu, so I cant answer them, hence after the first few seconds I wander off to my nice place.

Another thing which I do not understand is why do people take it as a matter of pride to make their guests eat till they are bursting out of their pants and jockeys. Ok, I am a bit stocky, I admit it. That does not mean, I eat like a pig. And god, so much rice. I had not idea that India grows so much of it, before I came here.

But anyways, I love going to these field visits. Its nice to be with the field staff because they treat me like I know the solution to their every problem, which of course I do ;) I had to cut short my last visit though. My driver's child was suffering from high fever since last five days, and though he did not tell me, I could see that he badly wanted to come back home. And actually, I was missing my TV too......

So, I am back here in Sundipenta today and on friday will go for field visit again, and this time I will "freshen up". Maybe it will bring a smile on the faces of my field staff thinking that PM saaar "freshened up" here today...........

Alllaaalllaa, kooochhy koo

I hate travelling in state transport buses, and I hate it when my neighbor is a middle aged guy who cannot control his one year kid (and his own rear wind pipe). I hate it. Maybe I can tolerate it a bit if the kid is quiet throughout the journey and doesn't interfere with my train of thoughts, but no such luck ever comes my way. This weekend I had to sit for four hours alongside such a guy and his one year old attention seeking kid. If only I had taken the window seat, I could have pretended to be looking out the window and be lost in my thoughts. But there I was, sitting in the aisle seat and the kid pops into my view the second I turned my head to look through the window at the milestone indicating that Hyderabad (my paradise) was still 120 kms away. Our eyes locked and the kid smiled (ok, I admit he was cute), so I smiled back. Next thing I knew he was reaching out to me and the dad thought he could have a few minutes of peace himself if he transferred his burden to me.

I do not know what to do with kids. I actually don't like them. The only thing I could think of was poke him a little bit here and there and make those annoying baby sounds. "Ullluulluu, aallllaaallaa, koochhy koo", I tried to impress the kid by saying this. Next thing I knew, the dad was taking him back from me. I think he realized that the world was still not a safe place for small children post Michael Jackson. Poor MJ, he tried to heal the world, and instead made everyone a pedophile suspect.

Though a bit embarrassed, I was happy. I looked out the window again at the milestone indicating that though paradise was still 80 km away, it was nearer now.

Monday blues

Monday blues never hit me so hard before........well, I never had a job before, and although I would feel a little blue during college, but I would be in a happy state due to the previous night's "tea" sessions.....

But this monday is different because I came back from Hyderabad just this morning, and I will not mince words, it feels like crap coming back here. My one friend here is out of town (damn, I think I just gave respect to Sundipenta by calling it a town) and I will not be getting a chance to meet the ones I left behind in Hyderabad. Oh Hyderabad.......it is such a magical place!! You have streetlights, cars, buses, motorcyles, autos, chicks, multistoreyed buildings, pubs, restaurants, movie halls, and what not. But I shouldnt complain right, I am in Sundipenta, I have fresh air, scenic beauty, no traffic, 24 hours electricity, cool and calm ambience. Let me tell you, all the above sound real nice when you are coming here for a two day vacation, escaping from the things you take for granted in your cities and towns. So the next time anybody tells me that Sundipenta (or Srisailam) is a very nice place, remember that the smile and the nod I am giving them is only understating the immense happiness and pride I have in knowing the fact the I have to live here for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.