Khuda gawah na jaye!

"THODA SMART banke dikhna yaar". "Tum quam ke aks ho". "You are our small ambassadors". Guess who's saying these and more importantly to whom? A newly-wed youth to his beloved wife? A teacher to the future citizens of the country? Or a politician wooing the general public at an election campaign?

You are grossly mistaken if your answer is one of the above three. You will have to exhaust all your imaginary skills to figure out who said this. Now read this to believe it. The people who said these were higher officials... that too of the police and MCH departments. Wait. The surprises are not over yet. They were telling these (voila!) to autorickshaw and taxi drivers of the twin cities.

Well. Why this sudden `behavioural' change among the cops and municipal authorities? Wanna know the reason. It is because the officials are hell bent upon giving a boost to tourism in the twin cities, especially exploiting the tourism potential of the historical monuments and structures like Charminar, Mecca masjid in the Old City.

The above fervent appeals were made by officials to pyaar bhari Hyderabadis... the Old City autorickshaw and taxi drivers during a one-day training programme on `Behavioural aspects' to drivers at Hussaini Alam organised by tourism authorities on Friday.

It all started with MCH Additional Commissioner Omar Jaleel asking drivers to be more polite to tourists, saying: "Thodasa qayal rakho bhai touristska jo cityko visit karte hain". Bingo! South Zone DCP S. Umapathi was more avuncular. "Shave regularly. Do teen sawari ke baad ek bar moo dholena yaar!" Watt an advice to our autowallahs yaar?!

There's more. Umapathi went on to request the drivers to inculcate `honesty' and return with promptness the goods--be it a suitcase or a small bag or any article--forgotten by the passengers. "Aisa kareto aapko Khuda salamat dega". Wow! Khuda gawah na jaye!

Let's pray to the God to bestow the same salamat on MCH and police authorities if they stick to the same `honesty' and `behavioural shift' they are expecting from the drivers.

By Marri Ramu

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