“I’ll be there in 5 mins!”

 

How much that phrase sounds familiar to you depends on how much a Hyderabadi, by heart, you are!  As a die hard Hyderabadi..this phrase had been a part of my life as I grew up here in Hyderabad and I had never given it a second thought until I travelled out of Hyderabad a few years ago and noticed that the rest of the world is a bit different from us!!

As I called the driver to pick me up from front of a store, in that absurdly crazy, dusty evening traffic, after I had finished browsing through a store in Hyderabad. I had decided to enter the store after seeing hoardings after hoardings, flashing the store with beautiful women clad in saris, that didn’t need the pallu to stay on her shoulder.  The curious cat that I am,  I had entered the store with hope in my heart only to come out disappointed.

I heard the driver on the other side say…

“Maam, I’m on the other side.. I’ll have to make a u turn…I’ll be there in 2 mins,!”.  It would just have to be a superman, batman or any such kinda guy’s feat, who wear their underwear over their pants…if this guy could be where I was, in 2 mins. Nonetheless, he said that with such unabashed boldness that it would be considered crazy..if I miind that or even took notice of that. But, I did!

Knowing pretty well, it would be really surprising  to find any Hyderabadi…who would not be a part to this crime, I still took notice of it.

This is the sweetest sin that a Hyderabadi could commit. It would be forgiven as easily as it was committed. For the Hyderabadi, is a very intelligent species among the humans…(S)he not only has this confident, blatant, audacious attitude with which he utters this sentence without even feeling a twitch in his conscience, s/he even has the skill and intel to convince the person, who is waiting, that, a deal any other way would have been impossible or bad altogether.

Remember all those tests that the sororities put the fellow students through, so they could be accepted into those clubs..?!  This is that test that one will have to clear, if (s)he wants to be accepted among the Hyderabadizens. Until, one is able to do this with ease..it would be difficult to absorb somebody into the club called the Hyderabadizens.

It is with great assurance that my SiL had  announced on the phone,

“I’ll be there in 5 mins!”,

as she was returning home from work, in that mental evening traffic. She had joined this elite club years ago.

She had been so excited to meet her parents and nieces that she used the Hyderabadi Hathiyar…(whatever magic words it would take to handle the situation, right?!). She had insisted that we stick around at her place for some more time so, she could meet us before we left for our place.  As soon as she had said that, her mom was already telling the grandchildren..”That’s your mom’s 30 mins, right?!”.

She had made it in 10 minutes!!

The rest of the world is taught  that, ”Please” and “Thank You” are the magic words. They can get any job done for you. But, for a street smart Hyderabadi…it is this phrase that holds all the enchantment!

“I’ll be there in 5 mins!”

How many of you haven’t recognized a Hyderabadi when you would’ve reached the movie theater at the decided time only to find your friend missing. When contacted, they  would fearlessly say..”I’m just a couple of turns away, I’ll be there in 5 mins!” while he would have actually gone to take a shower at that moment. 

Even things like what happened this morning is something one can expect, when in Hyderabad. 

We were supposed to be picked up by the driver at 10am. At 11am, when I call in to check where he was…the guy on the other side of the call replies,

“The driver has just left the garage…and by the way..wasn’t he supposed to be there by 10.30am?!”

“No! you had agreed to pick me up at 10am! Anyways…Its way past 10.30am ”, I reminded him a little peeved..having lost touch of how one becomes, accepts and treats a Hyderabadi peer.

“He’ll be there in 5 mins!”, comes the instant response.

At 11.30am…when I call the guy back to ask him where he was…

“Maam…here is the number..for the driver. Why don’t you call him yourself to find out his whereabouts!”, comes the chataak response.

By 12pm…Both the owner and the driver have stopped accepting calls from me because, that’s how a clever, street smart Hyderabadi displays the ease with which he is able to convince the person in waiting…

“Hey dude! Why don’t you call somebody else to chauffeur you around?!”

So, after I was woken up rudely from the vocation I had been taking of belonging to the rest of the world, I started to remind myself of how a true Hyderabadi is supposed to behave as I started to notice all these innocent…utterings of

“I’ll be there in 5 mins!”