Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is well-known for his simplicity. At recent event in Hyderabad attended by doctors from across the world, his unassuming nature came to the fore again.
When the President of India walks into a hall, the usual practice is to stand up.
This was what happened when the former President entered the venue. The ‘Missile Man’ was visibly bemused on seeing everybody stand. He smiled and remained silent.
When his turn to speak came, the audience once again stood up. With a huge smile, Dr. Kalam asked everybody to sit, just like a class teacher does to his students. “Why is everybody standing up? There is no need to stand. I am not that big for you people to stand up,” he said, before starting his speech.
Holy smoke!
A pharmacy store chain in Hyderabad took its motto of service to society quite seriously. Not just patients, these medical shops are the go-to places for late-night revellers.
Apart from medicines, the stores sell use-and-throw plastic glasses, packaged snacks and cold drinks.
There is more: they also have playing cards and cigarette packets of all brands. The medical stores, which are open till late night, thankfully seem to have refrained from selling alcohol so far.
Dripping with tehzeeb
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s speech at the Jamia Nizamia has become a talking point among the masses in the old city.
For he won their hearts by speaking in chaste Urdu laced with literary words.
Purani khushboo ku taaza karna hain (have to revive the old glory) he said, drawing applause from the gathering. His 20-minute speech in Urdu involved the use of words such as dawaatnama (invite), tehzeeb (culture) and khushkismat (lucky), striking a chord among the gathering.
Putting paid to a reporter’s curiosity
The Hyderabad Theosophical Society in Abids is located in an early 20{+t}{+h}century building that usually attracts no attention. Sundays, however, can draw curious onlookers (read reporters), given the unusually large number of vehicles parked in an often deserted building.
Those stepping inside are usually told to leave if a ‘secret session’ is under way in the ‘lodge’, piquing one’s curiosity. Adding to the excitement is the caretaker, who swears in a hushed tone that he is not aware about the society’s secret rituals, despite being associated with it for more than a decade.
Strangers are not allowed to witness lodge proceedings and any attempts are physically thwarted.
At the end of dogged efforts to uncover the ‘scoop’, an anti-climax is bound to ensue as a polite patron clad in white states its rituals are for members only. Anybody can become a member, he says, while offering a handbook about the society and its practices, putting paid to a massive adrenaline build-up.
Reporting by Rahul Devulapalli, Asif Yar Khan, M. Sai Gopal, Rohit P.S.
