INCREDIBLE VISKHAPATNAM.

                               The first time visitor to Visakhapatnam finds the city nestled between hills and the Bay of Bengal on its east nothing short of a breath taking spectacle of beauty and splendour. What is not apparent to all but the few discerning and knowledgeable is that the city is full of geniuses.  He gets the whiff of this feeling in the airport lounge itself which is always teeming with engineers of all branches who found a safe haven in the Steel Plant of the City of Destiny. The lounge normally reverberates with their banter of global economy, rising steel production and marketing strategies to make India shining and gives him the impression that he fortunately landed amongst a crowd of super dupers and achievers of the highest calibre. If he strays slightly to the right he hears people talking on matters of maritime strategy, littoral states, vast Exclusive Economic zones around the coast and the mineral wealth and riches within it. He also hears of animated discussions about keeping the sea lanes open for the economy to grow as he meets several groups of Naval Officers in civilian garb proceeding to all parts of the world to take part in naval exercises with all countries except Pakistan. He also finds several IT guys with their heads buried in their laptops. By then he feels like Alice in the Wonderland and gets a heady feeling that he stepped into the portals of a city overcrowded with brains, geeks, intellectuals and geniuses.

                             He gets it reinforced by the taxi drivers who talk smoothly with candy in their mouth and impress him with their glib talk that they are definitely a cut above the rest of their counterparts in any city. They induce such a high feel good factor in him that he doesn’t even feel the pinch when pays more than willingly a hundred bucks more than what is normal. The second tribe, the Auto drivers can teach the taxi drivers a trick or two and can quote with ease from anything starting with the holy scriptures to the Indian Penal Code as to why the installation of digital metres prescribed by the State Government is ultra virus to the Constitution of India and infringes on the fundamental rights of the auto drivers to cheat the customers. They are also equally adept at giving not less than hundred reasons as to why the installation of digital metres is harmful to the proper functioning of the engines, results in loss of efficiency and steps up fuel consumption which is detrimental to the interests of the fuel deficient nation. His knowledge of the Constitution and engineering leaves the customer mesmerised and makes him part with a fifty willingly over and above the amount negotiated first.

                           As he approaches the city he finds on his left an impressive building of the Naval Scientific and Technical Laboratory where all hush hush research goes on. The people going in and coming out showing deep lines of consternation on their high brows leave no doubt in his mind that they are seriously engaged in nothing less than sending the man to moon via underwater orbits. Further down the road he sees the Geological Society of India an impressive building with a granite façade with the scientists with Doctorates overflowing on to the road. They keep talking of the enormous mineral wealth and how they are going to discover all the sites by the end of the twenty second century.

                          Further down the road when he gets into the city proper he finds many vendors pushing their four wheel carts loaded with fresh stocks of conventional wisdom and wit, sagacity and savoir- faire. They do brisk business by being considerate and letting the customers choose the best of the goods on display. Having imbibed these already they make their money by manipulating the tools of metrology.

                          Further down he will find the Andhra University area where every pedestrian/jaywalker is either a PhD or in the making of one. Here the drivers slow down the vehicle lest they cause damage either direct or collateral to the learned or going to be learned soon. This area reputedly has the thickest population of PhDs in the country.

                         Another hundred yards after, he finds the Meteorological centre where the scientists get everything right except the weather. Further down he reaches the beach road which provides a calming cool breeze that soothes the nerves of even highly strung people. The beach road has a nice parapet wall where mostly the retired civil servants assemble in the morning, take a short walk and then get into a lengthy discussion how they made or marred the country to its present state with their sagacity. The beach road is full of morning walkers who walking briskly also talk about the same things like the Generation Past on the parapet wall except in the present tense. The beach proper has no gems in the sands but gems of people in plenty.

                        The cool breeze, the numerous tea shops and juice parlours may induce him to get down the vehicle and take a leisurely stroll along the well paved and tiles lined kerbs on the beach road. He has a major problem   here as this place is always teeming with geniuses of different kinds in large numbers. Some are self proclaimed like yours truly, many are acclaimed like   “mighty pen” (another blogger), some are perceived and many more miniature and pintsized. If he is not careful he is liable to tread on the toes of the powerati, glitterati, literati or geniuses and may incur their wrath.

                       If he comes to the middle of the beach road he will be in for a pleasant surprise and meet another genius that is yours truly who always keeps a B/L handy.