Finally... Hyderabad!!!

I have wished to visit Hyderabad since a long time now and had made plans too (couple of times) but as rightly said: How much ever you plan, it doesn't happen till "the time is right" !!

On one fine lucky day, while musing myself on my ride to office, I got a call from a "God-send" person, who asked me if I could visit Hyderabad office to conduct a training. I have always liked to teach and this was in Hyderabad, how could I deny?? I instantly agreed and called up my two buddies in Hyderabad, that finally the wait is over and its time for ... "Finally Hyderabad!!!" :-)

Finally, on THE DAY, before leaving office on Wednesday (13th July), I had to manage many work dependencies and make arrangements for my 2 days absence in office. Finally, on the way to Hyderabad, I came to know that this day will be marked in Blood Red in history of Mumbai... There were 3 serial blasts in Mumbai, in most crowded places of the city, at 7pm, when innocent working class of people is found rushing to catch the trains! As pointed out by my fellow traveler, the affected people were "easy and soft target", since Mumbai moves on such episode really fast. On the very next day, thousands of people will be rushing on the same streets, moving on with life, keeping this incident in history. This episode has again left a scar in my memories, and I keep thinking about the world that we live in and the people we live with.

In the journey, I was honored to meet an 80 years old Mr. LS Doshi, who is a lawyer by profession and math wiz, who can rattle the cube root of a 10 digit number or multiply two six digit numbers within split seconds! He is a person who leaves a memory in your mind to last a lifetime, even if its for a couple of hours. He was friends with many people who history has cherished, including Bachubhai (striking name for my hostel-ites). I believe that the people from that generation had the power to do something for what they care.

Coming back to Hyderabad, I reached there on 14th July, to be welcomed by super tight security setup for Telegana-bandh notice. I reached the guest house and then a cab took me to the office. This cab driver was an interesting guy. He didn't know any language other except Telugu, but was conversing with me all the way. :-) I could understand a few things, like he was born and brought up in Hyderabad, his sister is in Pune and his brother in-law works there. He also tried showed me some offices on the way, but I just smiled on his efforts.

In office, I was welcomed with a delicious South Indian food festival lunch. The training went good and I would say that the batch that I had was the finest that I have had till date! I was also invited to the family day celebration of Cognizant on Friday, which included a rock band show. In the evening I met a very close friend. It was nice to meet after planning for so loooong. I hadn't carried my camera to office, due to security policies, hence no pics on the 1st day of visit in Cyberabad, but I was "ordered" to take the "1st day pic" so here is my self click after reaching the guest house.

On Friday, I had planned to explore the public transport of the city. I had done my homework to find the connecting bus numbers from Hi Tech City (my guesthouse) to Chilkur Balaji Temple. I had my maps with me to guide me! I took the bus number 126M to Medhipatnam and then 288D to Chilkur Temple. This temple is supposed do be blessed with spiritual powers. They say that any wish made here gets completed. Along with many devotees, I took 108 pradakshinas of the temple. The feeling inside was beyond explanations. It was a place where you can seek inner peace, with pujari chanting names of lord Balaji, and devotees echoing the same, while trying to overtake other devotees ahead of them.

In the evening, I had one of the most memorable auto ride. While sitting next to the driver in the front, I had both my legs and my head out of the auto, while the driver was trying to cut his way through a heavy traffic lane. Twice the auto almost tilted with 1 wheel in the air and countless number of times bikers avoided running into my legs. Once, I was about to get scraped by the road divider. -- Wooahh what a ride was it, a ride that I'll never forget!

I also traveled in Hyderabad MMTS (local train), which was crowded, but nothing compared to Mumbai locals. The public transport is so cheap in Hyderabad, the MMTS costs flat Rs. 2/- for any distance and the bus was also really cheap. We got down at Beghampet railway station and reached "Eat Street" near Hussain Sagar lake. There is a huge Buddha statue in the lake, which locals refer as "like statue of Liberty" :-)

Saturday was kind of a long day. In the morning, I walked the surrounding areas, Madhapur and HiTech to explore the city and to find out options for day city tour. I realized that the city is very lazy. They wake up late and sleep early. All IT company employees do not wake up on a Saturday before 12. The night rate starts after 10 or 10:30pm and if you are on the roads till 11pm, you will feel alienated! We had gone for lunch at about 2:30pm and we still had to wait for 30-45 mins, and finally we went to another place and had our lunch. Post lunch, we explored a new area where we took many pics.

While waiting for another friend, we wailed some time in the surroundings. Finally (yes another finally in the story) I met an old colleague of mine, after 3yrs!! We had so much to talk and while we talked for hours, which seemed to pass by really fast, others had to start conversations, to avoid getting bored. We finally realized that there were others besides both of us!!

We then went to see Harry Potter at Prasad's Imax - 3D - courtesy my Google!!! (Google had booked the show for its employees and provided +1 free passes to each employee, with free popcorn, Pepsi and Puff!) The movie was nice and when we came out, the rains were pouring cats and dogs. The auto in Hyderabad is really costly and when the time (post 11pm) and rains are in the favor of the auto driver, will double the rates! We somehow got the auto but there was a fight with the driver regarding fare, while I was drenching in the rains. Finally all was settled and day ended with memories of an eventful day. I also met a couple of interesting people on this day, friends of my friend.

On the final day, Sunday I visited two most amazing places (besides others). One was THE GOOGLE OFFICE!!! and the other was Birla Temple.

We started our day with visit to Google office. As soon as you enter the campus, comforting cane swing chairs welcome you, to let you know how comfortable it is! There are massage chairs on each floor. Gaming zones with games like pool table, table football, carrom, etc. on each floor. So many pantry areas on each floor with chocolates, juices, noodles, biscuits, buttermilk packets, coffee machines, etc to pamper its employees. There is a comfortable reception area on each floor with sofas to relax on, with such an ambiance that you feel revived by sitting there. There is a half floor gym with yoga and massage room on the top floor. The gym is fully equipped like a professional gym. Before I forget, the best part --- Id card, its a 3D card with 3D image of the employee!!! I had never seen any id as beautiful as this! There is so much to write on Google office, that I can afford another blog on it!

We then packed our lunch and booked a cab for the day, had out "cabbie lunch", while heading towards Char-Minar, the icon of Hyderabad. We went up the towers and clicked many picture there. Then we headed to Salar Jung Museum. That place was so huge and the collection so beautiful! I had to rush through it, since we didn't have much time, but will go there again and peacefully see the museum, and also spend some time staring at one of the most beautiful carving - veiled Rebecca! The double statue, clear glass cut section, the ivory section and the musical clock, the clothes of Salar Jung (one of which resembled my lost childhood dress :-P) were also a few interesting exhibits. Not to forget the paintings section (specially the couple painting). There was a special exhibition section from China, on ancient China, which was also interesting.

We then moved to THE BEST PLACE IN HYDERABAD --- BIRLA TEMPLE! It is an amazing architecture made in marble, with beautiful statues and marble carvings. The main lord Vekateshwara is a huge idol, soothing. The panoramic view around the temple was breath taking. You can see the entire city from there, as it is located on a hill. From one side you can see Golconda fort, one side is just facing the Hussain Sagar Lake. No cameras were allowed there, but the images captured in mind are for a lifetime. Every time I will visit Hyderabad, Birla Temple will be on top of my list!

There was a big confusion in my cab arrangements while leaving, as the cab drivers could not find the location of my guest house, and I was already late, but finally all ended well, except that a couple precious things were lost.

Finally Hyderabad.... and finally its long awaited blog...!!!