Sunday, August 13, 2006

Trip to Chikka Tirupati and John's Terror Alert


We went on a drive to Chikka Tirupati yesterday. This sleepy little town is 10 km off Sarjapur. It takes about an hour from the Sarjapur ring-road junction. The road (if you can call it that) is very bad for a few kilometres after the Wipro office. It gets much better as you near Sarjapur. The scenery certainly isn't breathtaking, but it is a nice break from the chaos in Bangalore. There are plenty of small villages and farms on the way. The temple at Chikka Tirupati wasn't very crowded in the evening.

On, the way back, we stopped by a small bridge before Sarjapur. While the rest of us were scouting a location on the bridge for a photo, my brother in law, Praveen, was accosted by a man who seemed drunk. Their conversation went on for a while. Later, when Praveen narrated what happened, we had a good laugh. This is how it went:


Drunkard: Yellinda bandirivaru neevu? (Where are you from?)
Praveen: Bengaluru (Bangalore :)
Drunkard: Bengalura?
Praveen: Haudu, Marathahalli inda. (Yes, from Marathahalli.)
Drunkard (eyeing Praveen with suspicion): Marathahalli-alli nimmanna node ilvalla ... (I don't remember seeing you in Marathahalli ...)

Like Marathahalli is a village where everyone knows your name. Praveen didn't have an answer for this one. The next question was more direct.

Drunkard: Baamb haakakke bandideera? (Have you come to bomb this place?)
Praveen: Illanna, naavu yaake bomb haake beku illi? (No, why would we want to bomb this place?)
Drunkard: Alla, paper-nalli itthu, America minister iddaralla, ... Jahn,.. avaru heliddaranthe, bridge-igella baamb haktharanthe. Adukke kelidhe. (Don't mind, but I read in the papers about this American minister,... John, ... saying that people are out to bomb all bridges.)
Drunkard (walking away): Navella vyasaya maduvavaru, namma mele baamb haaku bedi. (We are people making a decent living, don't bomb us.)

Looks like there aren't many unaffected by the terror threat.