The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Reporter's Diary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Reporter's Diary

THE INDIAN Meteorological Department seems to be a little slow in catching up with the nuances of maintaining an informative website. The institution which was in demand on Sunday for information on the earthquake and tsunamis that struck coastal areas of the country, did not have any update whatsoever on the matter on its website.

The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), which was another main source of information, also did not have a link to its seismological labs on its website! But NGRI officials were ready to give information over phone unlike their IMD counterparts. The latter had more blunders in the form of a weather forecast for Chennai -- it predicted a sunny day even when tidal waves were lashing the coast!

Not that earthquakes can be predicted but at least the redundant forecast could have been pulled off the site. The only information on earthquakes that the IMD had on its website was about a mild earthquake in the Andamans sea in November. So much so for technological advancement!

* * *

IS THE gentleman driving or just relaxing by the roadside? Apparently, he is driving and this only goes on to showcase the peculiar ways of Hyderabadis once they hit the road.

Autos have children packed like sardines, buses have people dangling out from entrances and exits, foot boarding is what they call the phenomenon, and mopeds have entire families perched precariously on them. Yet, defying all laws of gravity, the Hyderabadi caravan moves ahead. Call it sheer luck, outrageousness or sheer audacity, we are like this only.

This burly gentleman was captured riding his moped with huge bundles of clothes that were spilling out and occupying half of the space on the road. Yet another gravity defying feat! Hyderabadis must surely be born acrobats.

* * *WHEN IT comes to laughing at themselves, Telugus are not all that large hearted. But when it is about the community at large, they wouldn't mind a barb or two.

At an international conference of Telugus at Bangalore last week, the former Union Minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu was at his wittiest best referring to the abject disinterest among parents and youngsters towards Telugu.

Speaking in chaste Telugu, he enunciated how alphabets were taught to him from the good old `Pedda Baala Siksha' when he was a child - `aa ante amma, aaa ante aavu', `e ante illu' - and compared the same with the almanac of today's youngsters, film songs. `For them, aa ante Amalapauram, aaa ante aahapuram, e ante ichapuram, gola petti yeela kotte Andhra janam," he said, reeling out the lyrics of a popular film number. Needless to say, the entire auditorium burst out laughing. Evidently, the irony in the comparison got lost in the sheepish smiles.

By Dennis Marcus Mathews and K.V.S. Madhav

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