My trip to Vishakhapatnam – Part 2

Warning: Please read Part 1 published yesterday before you proceed.

When pretty girls are around,
It is difficult to keep me down.

Wow. That sure sounded like a poem.

The train was now in Andhra Pradesh. I could tell by the bright colored clothes worn by the locals, Chinranjeevi posters on walls, and YS Rajasekhar Reddy cut outs on buildings. As confirmation…eunuchs were all around. Perhaps, you didn`t know that in Andhra Pradesh, there is a new class called ‘professional eunuchs,` who are actually men dressed up like eunuchs. During the day they force people to part with ten rupee notes and in the evenings, dress up like men and …chase girls. They are so good at work that they have even managed to take their success story to Mumbai.

I brushed, washed and sat next to the same three girls. It looked as if my competitors – the other 20 odd men in the group – were at work even as I spelt. For everybody barring me was having a dialogue with them.

Having been cornered, I decided to shift focus. I took out the Newsweek I was carrying especially for such an occasion started reading. It was the same Newsweek, I had read during my trip to Madurai last month. Mind you, Newsweek is a weekly.

Breakfast involved a plate of two idlies and two vada bought at one of the stations. It took me a while to find out that it wasn`t good enough and I threw them the four pieces next to the railway track. As soon as the bad idlies and vada hit the ground, we saw a small boy rush to the spot, pick it up, brush away the soil and hand it over to the shop-keeper so that he could sell it again. Nice business sense. Being smart people, we immediately comprehended the situation and crushed the idlies and vada before we threw them – just how we would do to a Mineral water bottle to avoid reuse.

After breakfast, I decided to inform Rekha about the supposed landing of my flight the previous night itself. Since I couldn`t call her (she would have easily found out I was in a train…she has learnt tricks from the movie Trainspotting), I had to message her.

Here is the message: Dear Rekha, Landed in Vishakhapatnam last night 10.30 p.m.. Had to rush to the disco – this VP is a party freak. After late night dinner went to Taj Residency and crashed. When I got up in the morning, the VP was all dressed up waiting for me to get up. Our meeting with Microsoft was at 8 a.m.. Now in a meeting. Will call you later.

I got a reply: Good luck sweetie. Try and eat something. I have already watched four movies and spoke to my parents seven times in your absence.

I felt the guilt, but as they say ‘in love and war everything is legal`. It was a war of nerves between Rekha and I.

We landed in Vishakhapatnam around 3 p.m.. Tired, hungry and dirty. The travel had lasted 18 hours.

After a short bus journey, which lasted 20 minutes and during which our bus pulled down three overhead cables, we reached Taj Residency. The reception was great. Just that there was nobody to receive us with garlands etc.

Nobody messes with 30 tired, dirty and hungry well-built men and women…so as soon as we landed we were shown our rooms and asked to meet at the Harbour View restaurant for lunch. Wow…what lunch. Can you please excuse me now…I am going to eat for a while.

The next post will be published on Thursday (22nd Dec) and will be on how I exploited Taj Residency, Vishakhapatnam.