Hyderabad Blues - I

Office - 5 minutes away.
Grocery/Restaurant/Laundry/Gynm - 5 minutes away
10 Downing Street (henceforth referred as TDS)- 30 minutes away. This ain't fair :) I miss rustic Toto or philandering Enigma. In Mumbai.

So what does a person do when he is by himself on a Friday night in Hyderabad? On sensible advice I headed towards 10 Downing Street which apparently is owned by the same folks in Pune. Hearsay. After making 3 wrong U turns and yet not finding Lifesyle (which houses TDS) a man has to ask for directions. After a tough 2 minute Telegu Hindi mix conversation with a watchman liberally spersed with pantomime antics, it finally sunk that I had to travel to the end of the road under the flyover and then take a Uturn instead of midway. Phew!!

I am about to enter TDS when the bouncer says "Couples only". ??? Is that so? Since when? Why? The bouncer repeats in a monotone "Couples only"..Someone sensible intervenes and after an obviously visible up-down look from moi face to jacket and boots, nods in moi favor. Another Phew. It was pretty early or so I thought at 9.30 pm. Not mucho crowd. I am instructed to sit by the bar (haha). As if it's a punishment. That would be moi choice anyway, right? There is an uncle sitting 2 seats away and another guy who is ogling at everyone who comes inside (yours truly included). After a round of JD, I hear a muted "Excuse me" from behind. I turned around and saw the guy pretending as if he didnt say anything. I am about to turn back when he said "Hi". A hi in return. Silence. I wondered what that was all about. It started filling up after 15 minutes. Nice crowd. Mix of uncles, aunties, mid 20s, mid 30s and I am the stud types. Ate the over-priced mutton seekh kabad, drowned it with another JD and called it a night by 11.

On moi way back, somewhere between Begumpet and Jubilee hills, there was a police road check testing the drivers breath for the obvious. Haha..This could be tricky. I wasnt sure whether moi 2 large ones would qualify me for being drunk. I do know for sure that the police have no concept of permissible limit here. Time to give it a whirl. The cop asks me to lower the window and blow into the device. I blow to the right of the device once. The cop mutters something in Telegu. I put on moi most irritable look and say "What" insolently. One more time Sar. I blow it sideways once more. He waves me on and I am home. That wasn't too bad. I wonder if I can do something like this in Mumbai but I dare not take more chances like this. I had the most interesting encounter with the cops and a mattress owner in Madhapur but that is for another post.