The old man on the flight

"So what do you think of this Koda guy?"

That's how it began. I was on my flight from Delhi to Hyderabad for a quick visit. I was sitting next to this elderly Telugu couple. After I spoke to them in Telugu a few mins earlier, the man realized I was Telugu and decided to engage me in conversation. Koda is a thief of a CM about whom I'll probably write about later in this blog. For now, I told him how I felt about corrupt politicians and he suggested nothing short of actually killing all corrupt politicians. We went on to discuss AP politics. He wasn't a fan of any particular party but we both agreed that our former CM YSR was a brilliant strategist. That the entire Congress party is reading the situation in the country very well and playing their cards well - not caving in to the Telangana movement, not caving in to the "YSR's son for CM" faction etc.

At that point I was surprised by how many assumptions he made about me and how was OK with voicing them. He talked about how neat Dubai is even if it is run by a **** (a derogatory term for a Muslim). Then he went on to ask me about my caste, he asked me if I belonged to a particular caste! Just like that! I didn't hide it, and he went on to talk about how great that particular caste is and that they are the only ones who are capable of sustaining the culture of the state and the Hindus in general (he's from a different caste but has a great deal of respect for my caste, and that was a little weird to be given any respect solely based on caste). What was mildly surprising was that he guessed my caste based on my diction. I was brought up almost entirely in Hyderabad and I always thought I had a very "city" accent, but evidently not. He asked me about my age, if I was married, how much money my company makes and so on. I got the feeling that if I was single he would have fixed me up with a relative of his. His own daughters were a few years older than me and I really think that bummed him out that I couldn't marrry either of them. Hmm, mildly flattering.

The guy himself was very interesting. He seemed to be about 65 years old. He is a businessman, and never studied beyond 6th grade. He felt bad about it and later in life he donated Rs. 2 crores (an amount of money that I will probably never end up owning, let alone donating!) to a college, which now bears his name. He talked about the importance of education and how once the country improves itself in education, it'll improve a lot. He is a very strict vegetarian and his wife is even stricter and can't even eat food when there's meat nearby. The two were returning from a trip to Nepal, apparently the place sucked! (Good to know since I was planning a trip there myself at some point.) He and his wife went on to tell me about a particular devotional channel and some program by a religious head.

When the flight landed I left without saying goodbye. He did make me a little uncomfortable but ultimately I was just in a hurry to get home. I did think of calling him because he gave me his card but even that I skipped on. He did make the flight very interesting though.