THE HYDERABADI DESPERATION

7 am in clock & I left for the US consulate in Begumpet in Hyderabad, India. The scheduled interview time was 8 am. I applied at Hyderabad consulate with the belief that applicants must be few as compared to at other consulates like Delhi/Mumbai/Chennai/Mumbai( of course I don't like Kolkata). But when I reached there, the reality easily outnumbered my belief. Almost all of them belonged to Andhra Pradesh except few like me. It seemed as if I am queuing up for a big entrance examination. Most of the applicants appeared to come directly from temples as the Sindhur on their forehead was very much prominent. All look tensed. They seemed more tensed than a Viswanathan Anand in front of a chess board, degree of silence was more than that of Dr Manmohan Singh. I felt like the student having the lowest IQ/worst preparation for a test.

       Fortunately my aunt was with me to share some of her thoughts on the hyderabadi applicants. According to her, in last 15 years, she hasn't seen a single middle class Telugu family from which nobody has gone to USA for a higher course. Going to USA is a matter of prestige for Telugu families especially in Hyderabad !! Most of them go for a MS course just after the Btech course !! The most interesting fact is that it is extremely hard to get a bride for a hyderabadi boy not having a USA tag. So nothing is more embarrassing than getting denied because of an educational issue.

    It was 8.30 in the clock when I was finally allowed to stand in the queue for the interview. Out of curiosity I started conversation with the guy standing in front of me. As expected, he was going to University of Akron, Ohio for his MS !! After few minutes, the girl who was behind me asks me '' excuse me, are you going for MS?'' .... after clarifying my case to her I asked her about her purpose of visit.... no prize for guessing..it was MS again!!!! She said almost 30-40% of her batch mates have applied for that MS degree.. She even told that her boy friend went to USA last year !!! [I never expected a stranger girl to talk to me about her boy friend] ;) .Massive brain-drain !!.. I assumed them to be super rich guys who are going for MS for 2 years. But when I eared the interview of the front guy, I listened something interesting.

Consular officer: So Mr Venkat, Who'll be sponsoring you during your stay in USA?

            Venkat : My father's annual income is 400k INR/annum & I have a bank loan of 20 lakh INR !!!!!!!

Immediately I looked back to the girl named Vijaylaxmi. I asked her whether she has gone for any loan. She said its 15 lakh INR !!!!! Now my belief about Hyderabadis got consolidated. Anyways my interview went in a smooth manner & I was granted. Very Next day,I met one of my best friends Amit. he asked me whether I went to Chilkur balaji temple !!!! 

Chilkur balaji??? I exclaimed....  He said Chilkur Balaji is also known as Visa god/Visa Balaji. Before going for the Visa interview, the Hyderabadis worship the Visa Balaji. I just couldn't resist my curiosity & checked it google.. I found the following from the wiki page.

''Chilkur Balaji Temple popularly known as Visa Balaji Temple or Visa God , is an ancient Hindu temple of Lord Balaji on the banks of Osman Sagar Lake near Hyderabad, India. It is 33 Kms away from Mehedipatnam. The Balaji temple is one of the oldest temples in the Telangana region built during the time of Madanna and Akkanna, the uncles of Bhakta Ramadas.

Approximately, 75,000 to a lakh devotees visit the shrine during the week, but on Fridays and Saturdays, the temple gets close the cumulative of a week. Many of whom come to pray to Balaji for visas to travel or move to the US and other Western countries. And its head priest Gopala Krishna is instrumental for the temples popularity as Visa God.''

It is really hard to believe the fact that there are temples for visa interviews. In fact there are 3 more such temples in India. But it is the Chilkur balaji which has the highest success rate. It just shows how desperate some of the Hyderabadis are. I am not writing anything offensive but degree of desperation they are showing is hard to digest. It would have been fairly normal to go to visa interview in an usual manner. But to do the same with 20-25 lakh bank loan & worships at the visa Balaji temple is little funny. I am not criticizing them for going USA for higher education(as I am also in the race), in fact it is the level of obsession & desperation for it which irritates my grey matter the most. It just creates an impression as if USA is indispensable for us. So it is just a simple suggestion to all the hyderabadis in a friendly manner ... ''Don't be over-desperate for USA... go, use their system & come back to India (Brain gain).... if they deny visa, just work in India & show that they have done a mistake by not issuing the visa''

[PS: I am not typing this stuff as I my application didn't get rejected. it is just a realization. I hope nothing in this article is cardiotoxic .. In case it has hurt any person, I apologize from the bottom of the heart]

HAVE I MADE IT LARGE?

3-4 movies per day, end less gossips with friends on the terrace, over-use of social networking sites.. This has been the story since last 1.5 months. Currently all these entertainments are sandwiched by the pleasant hope of using the prefix 'Dr' & a frightening anticipation of getting failed in the exam. So the life is all about killing the boredom since the last the day of final MBBS exam. Few days back, all those text books (Harri+David+Ander+Nel)Sons were killing our time... but now we are searching for different methods apart from the books. I bet, for most of the people on the planet social networks are the best way to get relief from the  boredom & I am not the lucky exception. With the down falling falling of Orkut, most of the grey matters are jammed at Facebook & Twitter now a days. OK I am Sorry if I am confusing you with the title 'Have I made it large?' Definitely I am not a brand ambassador ROYAL STAG ! Its just about the psychological reflections of those addicted to Face Book & Twitter.

                       ''Young girl commits suicide after not getting enough 'LIKES' on the face book profile picture''..... ''boy throws acids on girl's face after the later denied his friend request in F.book''..... ''famous fashion designer is depressed because of not getting enough followers in Twitter''

   I think we are definitely going to hear such news in TV channels/news papers(P.S-I am not counting 'INDIA TV' in the channel list). We are so much addicted to these things that it'll be simply unavoidable in near future. If someone says he/she doesn't post a picture/update just to get the 'LIKEs', he/she is the biggest liar on this planet. Almost of all of us are using these sites for self-publicity.. that is the truth ! No body will admit that he/she was not sad after not getting the 'likes & comments'. Being frank I would love to reveal that some of my friends have phoned me in mid night to click the LIKE option or give some praise-coated comments on their posts. That is purely & surely ridiculous. My heart wanted to block those persons in FB but brain made me realize that it is a normal phenomenon. Even the likes of Amitabh Bachchan & Sachin Tendulkar are using networking sites. Struggling actresses like Minisha Lamba/Riya Sen/Antara Mali manage their self-created fan groups in Facebook. So it doesn't matter whether you are from a middle class family or you are the son/daughter of the Mallyas/Ambanis, you always crave for publicity. Shower of LIKEs & comments makes us feel that YES, I HAVE MADE IT LARGE !!!

One thing for sure, the social networking sites have given birth to millions of HYPOCRITES. Believe me, its really funny to go through the profiles of this type of people. As evident from the definition, they are the ones whose actions are not consistent with their claimed beliefs. 'I WHAT I AM'....'I AM AN OPEN BOOK' ...'I AM A SIMPLE GIRL' ... I BELIEVE IN SIMPLE LIVING, HIGH THINKING' ... These are the most common phrases in the 'about me' column in Facebook/Orkut/Twitter. They always try to convince how sweet/cute they are via these types of phrases. I have found few people to be completely opposite in their real life though their profile shows these phrase since they were zygotes. I believe this is just to balance/over-balance their social prestige. By this, the profile looks as if IT HAS MADE ITSELF LARGE !

               According to a recent publication by the the Dept of human psychology of University of Cambridge, Social networks have drastically hampered the communication skills among teens.They usually get a false sense of satisfaction of being smart/aggressive/romantic in their Facebook profile. But in real life they struggle to catch up with their Facebook images which leads to depression, poor eye contact during communication etc. The researchers claim that it happens when the false sense of pride in virtual world is out of phase with the real world activities. So it is not all about MAKING IT LARGE in networking sites by funny updates & posting one of the good looking pictures(out of millions of bad looking pics).... its all about asking HAVE I MADE IT LARGE?? in the real life ...... ( my heart says the answer: NO NO NO ) 

         

            [all of us have become the victims of these sites... frankly speaking, while typing this blog I was thinking whether people will LIKE this or not... whether the members of indiblogger.com will PROMOTE my post in indivine or not etc ... I realize, its a human instinct & its unavoidable]

NO I HAVEN'T MADE IT LARGE :(

ON LIBRARY IN LIBRARY

Knock....... ‘Abhi.....come on buddy...get up.it is time for library....abhi....kutte...get up’’.......I opened my stressful eyes after being banged by the above sweet(!?) words  from anuraag, my batch-mate..As a normal guy, I always hate the feeling when someone forcefully gets me out of the bed, especially from a morning REM sleep. I felt like a dog as I slept @3am last nightL. After giving some stress to my optic nerve in my dark room, I found out that it was 8.30 am. OMG... I scratched my head in tension because our library opens @9amL. Suddenly I felt as if I am amalgamated with the soul of Usain Bolt. Then I attended the sweet call from nature in a hurry & stepped towards the medico’s morning destination; the LIBRARY.

I know, some of you are wondering about the fact why I sacrificed my much needed sleep. Is it just for a tag of punctuality in my neck??? NO...actually having(capturing) a seat in the library of my college during summer is similar to Ravindra Jadeja bowling a maiden over in a T-20 match!! Sometimes I feel that one has to reserve a seat since the stage of zygote!!Nobody prefers a hot hostel over an air-conditioned library .on the other hand, sitting in library ensures me an extended period of study. That is why I am flying in love with our library. If you have never been to a library of a medical college, then you are reading the right article.

All the hard-core library-philiacs reach the library gate before 8.55am during summer & wait for the officials to open it. Some students are very possessive about their fixed seats so they always sparkle in the queue. The boyfriends always hold 6-7 books (including their GF’s). It is really pathetic to watch some of the underweight boyfriends holding the 4 volumes of Harrison/2sets of bailey-love/2 sets of robbins.....anything for you ma’am!!!. They are definitely good prospects in weight-lifting for India in Olympics.

Some nocturnal animals like me, hit the library at 9.30 am. Even at this time, it takes a lot of effort to get a seat. At 9.30, although 90% of the seats are reserved, you’ll find only 50-60 students in the library having a capacity 500 students!! This is just because of the old Indian disgusting tradition of reserving seats for friends & so-called lovers by keeping a book on the table. Some students keep their book & leave away to have some Tiffin in our inglorious canteen. Some other go to the table-tennis room & return after 6pm!!!

So at around 10 am, all the brains align themselves in a common phase; STUDY. You’ll find 3 different category of students (1) Voracious readers (2) Lovers & (3) Students unable to concentrate. I don’t want to transform my article into a boring one by mentioning about the 1^st category. So let me skip those purely dedicated souls..!!

So here comes the second category; LOVERS.  They always sit next to each other unlike at restaurants where they sit in front of each other. Do you know why?? Actually in the restaurant, the BF wants to check how much his lover is eating, but in the library there is no threat to the wallet!! 99.9% of the lovers are accompanied by a bottle in front of them (rest 0.01% are kangaroo rats!!). The boyfriends bring water in every 30-40 min. I wonder how they become thirsty so frequently at 18 degree centigrade. It won’t be a bad idea to start a project on the topic ‘effect of love on serum vasopressin/aldosterone ’!!  Some undergraduate couples prefer to sit in the P.G section, even if seats are available for them!! I am still searching for the exact reason. Is it for dignity/privacy?! In my opinion, this category is the most efficient one, because they study for 1 hour intensely followed by 10-15 min of romance in canteen which filters out all the stress. Ultimately students from this category come out in flying colours in all the exams. BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL LOVER, THERE IS A LIBRARY!!

Now, let’s shift to our category i.e students unable to concentrate for a long time. It wears the tag of majority. Students of this category study intensely for 20-25 min followed by gossiping in the toilet/stairs/canteen for 15 min.  Their earphones always kiss their external auditory canal. Studying SPM/microbiology in the background music of chiggy wiggy/zoobi doobi is amazing!! The sweeper’s duty becomes difficult because of the huge no of chocolate wrappers & chewing gums below the table of this category. Some of the eyes intermittently search (unsuccessfully) for rare angelic faces sitting in front of them. Externs from Manipal/Mumbai have always been the sources of attraction for this category. 3/4^th of cerebral cortex is for studying & 1/4^th for eyeing on others activities!!

Students from this category do everything. They stare at girls, they stare at difficult charts explaining acid-base balance, gossip about exams, gossip about movies/cricket/affairs etc &
&
&
&. Some of them waste their time by writing articles on LIBRARY .......

siren.........................OMG its 11.00pm.its library closing time...this is enough...i'll start studying from tomorrow !!

[I hope this article hasn’t hurt anybody’s emotions. If it has, then I m not sorry because in my opinion there is nothing in it that is cardio-toxic ] !!