KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN

This was one of the most weird experiences I had in my life. By the time I left the place, I was left with a weird pain in my heart, combined with pride. And the place was Kentucky Fried Chicken or better known as KFC. This was a new one that opened up on the ground floor of one of the new multiplexes that opened up near TDP office.

I went in there to have a snack and as I stood in the line, I had started noticing the eerie silence on the other side of the counter. Though I couldn't quite comprehend the reason at first, I quickly noticed that all the employees serving there were special, they couldn't speak. (I can't think of putting it in a better way other than call them "Dumb").

Each and every one of them at the counters were using sign language, aided by pre-written words and a handy menu card. With an effort, I tried not to stare at them when they took the orders from others. I didn't want to be rude! I ordered two chicken wrap meals, one each for my friend and myself. After "gesturing" that I'll "eat-in" and "no-cheese" and "I'll pay by card", I returned to my seat, waiting for our orders. n this is when my friend said that he wanted 7up and not Pepsi.

Now, for the other stuff, I could point to the large pictures and he could use the pre-written words to understand each other. But how could I tell him that I needed one 7up and one Pepsi?
So, I went as close as possible to the counter, waited for the same guy who took my order and gestured that out of the "two" "drinks", one was "seven" "Up". And he understood in a jiffy -and I stood there amazed at his skill...and then I made a statement to my friend, who saw the whole episode, "It's amazing to see how god re proportions the sharpness of brain for a person with a disability and it's amazing to see these people using their brains the way even normal ones have stopped using!"

Shirdi Yatra

Trip to Shirdi. What a trip it was! Meant to be a whirlwind tour of Shirdi, it created enough havoc, whirlwind size. It was also my first trip on a "Volvo" Air conditioned bus. And the choice to take one run by the Tourism Department ended in chaos!

We boarded the bus at 5:30 PM, a half an hour delay from the original start time. I gave the benefit-of-doubt, considering it was prime time and the prime location of Tank Bund. First glimpse at the bus gave me reasons to doubt the definition of luxury. Quite a few dents and patch works on the outer body. Again, my mind attributed those to bad roads rather than reckless driving or bad maintenance.

As we got into the bus and settled in our comfortable seats, I noticed that they provided us with fresh, non-stinking blankets. The bus started filling up, and after quite a few halts in the city, we crossed the city outskirts around 10:00 PM. After a few attempts to run a movie, the co-driver had to change the CD for another one. We were halfway through the movie when they stopped the bus for around 40 minutes for dinner, at a tourism-owned restaurant, called "Punnami". Although we didn't eat there (thanks to a generous friend who packed dinner for us), one look at the toilets gave me the creeps. The wash basins were filled with hundreds of insects, probably attracted by the wet weather. The urinals and the toilets, I didn't dare to see! After donating quite an amount of acid to mother earth, we settled down again in our seats.

After travelling about 50 km, as I was about to go into a slumber, the bus was stopped for the first time, and the co-driver started meddling with the fuses. The problem - the wipers and the AC had the same fuse, and the wiperblades refused to turn off when not needed. In the process to fix it, he pulled off the wrong fuse, and the cabin light went out. After wasting almost an hour on that, he gave up and continued the journey. After about half an hour of journey, he stopped the bus again, and went about fixing the fuses. Although he succeeded in fixing the cabin light, he couldn't do anything about the wipers. Again, after around an hour of stoppage, the journey was resumed.
After a couple of hours, the bus was stopped for a third time, and after spending around 15 mins on the fuse, the driver came up on a "brilliant" idea and detached the wiper arms altogether. The journey continued without any breaks from that point, but I cannot say the journey was smooth, because of the callous conditions of the Maharashtra State highway.

We reached Shirdi at 10:15 AM instead of 7:00 AM, and we had to rush through our morning ablutions and bathed and went to the temple. We hoped to get a Darshan of the Baba by atleast the noon aarti time, but had to stand in the queue from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM, and by the time we finally got out, it was 3:30 PM. We had planned to visit all the small temples around the main one, but the moment we got out, it started to pour! And I noticed that my wallet was missing! Somebody had knocked off my wallet! With great difficulty we made it to the Dhuni, the mosque where Baba used to sit, and then had lunch at a restaurant nearby and returned to our hotel room.

All of us were thoroughly exhausted and needed some sleep before we resumed our return journey in the evening. The bus was at 6:00 PM, and started at 6:30PM. This time, I got into the bus with no expectations of a comfortable journey. It turned out to be the best thing I did, because, the return journey was faster and smoother (after entering AP border) than I expected. The journey was uneventful except the loud conversations of a family, a group of 15, who were loudly talking to each other in the funny accent of East Godavari District.

The funniest part was when they tried to figure out if a zero was necessary when a number is dialed from a roaming location. "Jeero petti Number kottu yelthadhi ", one of them said, to which the reply was, " number yelthadhi kaani jeero yelthadho ledho theleedhu!"

After a relatively smoother and faster ride,(although we had our share of RTC special body massage), we got off at Yatri Nivas at 6:30 AM and reached home by 7:00AM. My mom has resolved never to travel in a bus. And I don't blame her!

And tomorrow, we are off to Tirupati. By Train.