Thursday, February 21, 2013

Hyderabad: "the bombs bursting in air" is not comforting

The news headline that I read after coming back from class was far from encouraging on an overcast winter day here:
13 killed, 83 injured as twin blasts rock Hyderabad
What the hell is wrong with people! Not one, but two explosions, with at least another one that didn't:
The blasts that hit the city in Andhra Pradesh were 10 minutes apart, police said. Television images showed casualties being rushed to hospital.
India's home minister said bombs had been planted on bicycles 150m (500ft) apart near a crowded fruit market.
How terrible!

Thanks to the sabbatical, when I could have an extended stay in India and understand a little bit more about the country where I was born and raised but where I feel I am a stranger now,  I visited Hyderabad for the first time in my life.  I do not know anything about the city's layout to know whether I was at any part of the city even close to where these blasts occurred.  But, as is always the case with me, I begin to relate a lot more to a country or a city after I have been there and, thus, this news is more than yet another piece of news for the day.

As a tourist, of course, I had to go visit the famed Charminar.  In fact, even the train I took from Chennai to Hyderabad was the Charminar Express.  To the local population, it was a pleasant day, but I found the heat a tad unbearable, which is why many of the photos that I took then were when I was in the shade--in the photo below, you see the leaves of a tree that provided some wonderful relief from the sun.
Nearby is a big mosque.  The security guys stopped me at the gate because I couldn't take the backpack with me, and there was no way I was going to separate myself from my backpack.
Walking around a little bit was physically exhausting because of the heat, but there was so much of energy there from the merchants selling all kinds of goods, including the famous Hyderabad bangles and other jewelry.  The glittering in the dazzling sun comes through even in the photo below:
Of the different photos I took of the razzle-dazzle, I like this one the best because of the images of women also.  To the academic in me, the mix of people was fascinating.  Especially the sight of so many women in various kinds of outer garments.

Even though it was a very brief interaction with the city and its people, I am able to relate a lot more to them when I read the news.  I hope there will not be anymore news reports of bomb bursts.

1 comment:

Ramesh said...

I am not sure what sort of people can do such things as let off a bomb in a market place. How can you deaden your humanity to do an act like this ?