Choodi Bazaar

Choodi Bazaar ( Bangle Market, Hyderabad, India)

The City of Hyderabad is truly exotic,
a visit to this culture capital will make one mesmerized.
Albeit the gullies are narrow and mostly chaotic,
a visit to the old city definitely leaves me hypnotized.

Charminar stands tall and magnificent in the heart of this historic old city,
the bazaars surrounding it are overly crowded but totally enchanting.
Choodi Bazaar in particular is surreal and amazingly pretty,
and its tortuous lanes are exuberant and eye catching.

Colorful glass bangles I see salesman carefully arranging in showcases for display,
Paan chewing merchants beckoning burka clad ladies with their polite tones.
I get off the auto-rickshaw and walk excitedly gazing at the endless stores in sparkling array,
always glancing back to take another glimpse at the bracelets with precious gem stones.


In serendipity I wander tirelessly until dusk for many hours,
stopping occasionally to buy the lustrous lacquered souvenirs at every other store.
To this vibrant Choodi Bazaar I have done many many tours
however, it is always inviting me to come back and see much more... :) :)

Typical High Class

Almost every year our country has to face natural disasters in some form. It may be an earthquake in Gujarat, floods in Orissa... In our country, these calamities create havoc.
In course of my work, i have found that after such calamities, many people like to donate money or materials to relief fund. We assume that most donations come from rich people, but that is not true. On the contrary, people from the middle class and lower middle class, help more. Rarely do rich people participate wholeheartedly.
As I’m interested in social service i joined the Leo club. A branch of Lions club for youth.  last year when Vijayawada was almost drowned due to floods we thought to help them behalf of our Leo club and collected some money and material from our club members but its not enough. So we thought of asking some high class people and people in a good position.
Some companies came forward and gave us there valuable time so that we can tell the actual situation of the people now. Everything was ready and was about to start in 10mins. As the president of Leo club i have to give the lecture, But I was not sure how many people in the audience would really understand the speech and change themselves.

After my talk was over, I met some people. It was an affluent company and the employers were well-off and well-dressed. They were all very emotional after the lecture.
They started telling me, We buy may clothes every month. Can we donate our old clothes to those who are affected by floods? Can you co-ordinate and send them? Some of them offered other things.
We have grown-up children, we would like to give their old toys and some vessels.
I was very pleased at the reaction. And asked them to send their bags to the leo club office, and I’ll see that they reach the right persons.
Within a week , our office was flooded with hundreds of bags. I was proud that my lecture had proven so effective.
One Sunday along with some members of our club and workers, started opening the bags, What we saw left us amazed and shocked. The bags were brimming over all kinds of junk! piles of high heeled slippers(some of them without the pair), unwashed shirts, transparent, cheap saris, toys which had neither shape nor colour, unusable bed sheets, aluminium vessels, broken cassettes were soon piled in front of us like a mountain. There were only a few shirts, saris and usable materials.
It was apparent that instead of sending the material to a garbage, these people had transferred them to our office in the name of donation. The men and women i had met that day were  bright, well travelled, well-off people. If educated people like them behave like this, What would uneducated people do??
The other day a company called siri's gave us permission for lecture, But i was not interested after seeing all these. But have to go as there is no other choice for me. As we entered the hall there were about 200 people in the hall. All are lower middle class people. So I thought of giving the lecture in a brief manner and wanted to end the show as fast as possible.

After the lecture many of them came to me asking many questions and the things they want to donate. I thought if the high class people cannot give the material that can be used by the people affected by floods, how can these people give??
Again in a week our office is flooded with many bags. We started opening those bags expecting the same result, and this time we are really amazed and shocked. All the material send by them are really useful and we are very happy that we can help them totally as we have sufficient amount.
But we also felt ashamed  by our behaviour (not answering them properly and just telling them to send the material to our office) or thought that day when we went for giving lecture to them.
This lesson from those people, has stayed with me ever since. If  at all imp helping anyone today, it is because of the lesson by those simple souls. I did not learn them in any school or college.

THE REAL JEWEL

Vijayawada (city on fast track)... 

Nowadays the literacy rate here is increasing high, people are enterprising and hardworking. They are travelling all over the world in search of employment.

Every day while coming from college at around 6 - 6.30, I see a old women on da way... she will be walking with her grandson.. She is very confident and strong by nature... she reminds me my grandmother... As today the weather is so pleasant and cool, i sat on a bench in the nearby park... She came and sat next to me and started asking questions about, what I’m studying and so on... she is talking in such way that she is well educated, so I asked her 'did you study when u were young'

She sighed as if she was in pain.

'No, unfortunately I did not go to school. When i was young we were extremely poor and was a coolie in the garden of a school teacher. I always felt education is essential. if you can read and write you can secure a better job. In my case it was not possible. So i was determined that my only son 'Venkateswar Rao' should study as much as possible he could and i would work hard for that. My husband also felt the same way, but he was killed by a snake bite when my son was five years old. It was my promise to him that i would educate my son.

'My son did not disappoint me. he went to Bombay as a hotel boy, he cleaned the plates in the morning, and in the evenings went to "MOGHAVEERA NIGHT SCHOOL" (it is situated in Worli) and studied there.

Once he finished his schooling he became a clerk at the counter of a hotel and went to Night College. He got his degree and started his own hotel in Bombay. He became very successful.

Then I asked why he is here now??

She smiled. I could see she was proud.

'He started many hotels in Bombay but i remained here only. i never felt comfortable in Bombay in spite of all money he had because  nobody spoke Telugu there and i love Vijayawada..

There was a saying in Sanskrit also

"janani janmabhoomischa

swargadapi gariyasi" 

She continued..

My son became very wealthy and handed over his business to his son. he is now 55yrs old and 10yrs back he returned here.

I was unable to understand how a busy successful person like him could retire to this godforsaken sleepy big village (Vijayawada city is also known as big village)

Then she replied when he became rich, my son asked me, "Amma i have earned so much of wealth. I want to know what you want. I remember you sold all your jewellery for my fees in college. Now I want to buy lots of jewellery for u.

I asked what did you answer??

'I told my son that in life, the real jewellery is education' 

The teacher for whom i worked when i was young used to tell everything will perish over a period of time, but education brings confidence to your face and that is the real beauty. I have crossed the age to wear jewelleries. If u respect my wishes, build as many schools (with low fee) as possible. My son understood my feelings.
He himself shifted here and has, till today built ten schools in and around Vijayawada (VIDYA VIHAR).

Now i understood the increase in literacy rate in Vijayawada.

Women like granny had not studied but they had understood the importance of good education.

"It is certainly true that if one man studies, only one man is educated whereas if one lady studies, the entire family is educated."

HIGH HEELS :)

Three days back,I was supposed to go out with my friend to a restaurant in order to celebrate a treat. As usual, I was late and fall asleep just before an hour ,thanks to my sweet friend who knows these bad habits of mine and kept on calling me till I got up,I managed to leave home around half an hour late to the scheduled time,and ,as expected I could not find the right pair of shoes to wear with my dress at the last moment and somehow found out a pair of real-high heels that I bought more than a year back but hardly wore them .Whenever I tried wearing them in past (not more than 3-4 times), it caused either really painful blisters or ankle sprains and when luckily none of those happened, I had to be really cautious while walking and had to take each and every step slowly,afraid of having a bad fall and be a joke in a public place..
 My usual not -so-slim built was also what was going against my walk,making each and every step difficult and  painful.


But the heels,which from outside looked extremely pretty,(though I do not suffer from any shoe-fetish unlike most of my girl-friends)but getting rid of  those pretty heels was extremely difficult.I could not walk and had to take an auto on my way to the restro, though I preferred to walk that small-walk.


This reminded me of a close friend of mine used to date,being with him she felt exactly this same way, he had a highly educated background, okay looks, they had similar interests and she learnt many things from him (some she shouldn't have) and a great job. A guy most of the girls love to date. But unlike her, he used to judge everything by their brand values, had no strong sustainable emotions, no power to go by what he felt and knew was right, kept on hurting her telling her how she was not good enough for him, and she, being a stupid silly romantic girl, believed in him, She felt so much for him that  she blindly trusted him and each and every promises he made, all of which, he broke in the end.


He was same as the pretty heels...addictive..catchy, hard to get rid of..and she definitely was, all
                                                "HEAD OVER HEELS"
for him, but thank-god, she managed to get rid of him in the end..though it took a hell lot of time.


What would life be if they still be together, she still be with him, he preferred to get married by the time she turns 24, for he just could not wait(if you know what I mean)..and for his sake, even if she had got married to him, he would keep on reminding her that she is not pretty, rich or good enough for him, for the outside world she would be a lucky girl, married to a gem of a boy, having a bright future ahead and living happily ever after with no financial worries..just like wearing the pretty shoes..


These painful heels were a good reminder for me, next time, I will buy one which fits me and also complements the person I am, the one that would make my journey of life a pleasant and comfortable one..and I can go on miles and miles wearing it..! :) :)