Brand Hyderabad

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Lost in A.R.Rehman's latest offering from Em Maya Chesave, i was staring out of the auto, not thinking anything for a long time as i set out home the other day. Just near Shopper's Stop where the traffic flow tends to get disrupted, i saw a head peeping out of a Silver Innova, staring right at me..a guy with blonde hair, perhaps 18 years old, with blue eyes staring right into me, gave me a small smile and looked away staring at the traffic with open mouth.

Seated beside him were his friends and some Indians, presumably their hosts, perhaps.. My auto was right beside their Innova..and it was not difficult for me to see the awe on their faces coupled with horror at the way traffic moved here...

And they pretty much had the same expression till Rasoolpura cross roads where we parted ways...and that got me thinking. What is Brand Hyderabad? Over the years, Hyderabad has been called Cyberabad, IT hub, Green City (this no longer holds true) so on and so forth.

What has remained consistent in the past ten years is this tag "Drive in Hyderabad and You Can Drive Anywhere in the World". Over the years, the tag, once said sarcastically has now become a proud statement. Something that is said by many of us (Hyderabadis) matter-of-factly. And this is the tag that foreigners or our 'Athithis' carry along with them. And believe me they don't do it in a nice way.Nor do they laugh over it.

During the recent Telangana agitations, lot of people (Hyderabadis) expressed their angst that Hyderabad's branding has taken a beating ..But then this happens almost every year doesn't it? Doesn't brand Hyderabad's image take a beating when we drive without lane-sense, traffic sense and civic sense? Doesn't it take a beating when we scribble sweet nothings on our heritage structures or encroach them? Doesn't it take a beating when we pollute our lakes and dirty our surroundings? Where does the thought of Brand Hyderabad go then??

When Hyderabadis and Indians can in general desist from breaking traffic rules, littering etc when they are in other countries, what makes it so tough for them to follow the same here? I have heard many NRIs tell me that the rules need to be more stringent here. I don't think it is about rules and regulations. It has more to do with us, individually and common sense. When we go to France, UK, US, we are awestruck by their heritage, take photos, go gaga over the buildings etc and when it comes to our own country, we go "tch-tch, this government isn't worth anything" and believe me we say this for every government.

So, next time we go 'tch tch Brand Hyderabad is taking a beating' let us think what Brand Hyderabad is in the first place. Is it just an image for wooing investors or beyond that? And what are we doing in contributing (or not) to this Branding?