Hyderabad Again
After so many months of making and canceling then again making and again canceling plans, I finally came to Hyderabad on the 7th of February, 2008. I had been told many times, that I will be going to the city of pearls and was supposed to leave on the 23rd of January with Naresh, but later I was told that the plan has been cancelled and that I will be going later with Nagesh and Hiren. I was really disappointed as I and Naresh had made many plans about our trip to the city. But all the planning went in vain as he went without me and I was left to do some work which was taking forever to get over. I was really frustrated and the frustration increased when I came know that I was the only boy left in the office, as all the others had gone on some audit or the other.
So, when I reached here it was a relief, and I was really looking forward to the whole trip as it promised to be a good learning experience and also great fun. We reached here on Thursday and were greeted by Naresh and Praful when we went to the client’s office. First three days went quickly as there was not much work, we used this time to surf the net and talking (and also saw a movie called Apocalypto on Thursday night in our hotel room and another named Sunday on Friday night in PVR), while doing the small amount of work that we had.
[We had lunch at Taj Tristar everyday, dinner on Thursday at Paradise, Friday at the Movie Multiplex when we went to watch a movie. On Saturday Naresh and Praful left for Mumbai and that night we had dinner in our hotel.]
Sunday was a real fun day. We had planned to go on tour around the city and had made extensive plans. And surprisingly everything went according to the plan, which is a rarity going by my recent record.
I slept late on Saturday as I was watching a movie in my room. The movie was too slow and later the DVD stopped working. So the waking went in vain. But I was not to sad about the whole thing as the movie was a very slow law drama and I to be honest I was a bit relieved when it got stuck. Not that anyone was forcing me to watch the movie in the first place but I don’t know why but I sometimes get this weird urge to do weird things and this was one of them, watching boring movies and testing till when can you last.
So the Sunday started on a sleepy note. But India’s match against Australia made me get up early (at around 8.45). Then we had a filling breakfast and were on our way to our sightseeing (at around 11.30).
The sun was shining brightly even in the month of February and it was a perfect day for a drive around town. We started our day on a religious note and first went to Birla Mandir.
It was a very beautiful temple situated on a hill on the shore of the man made lake Hussain Sagar. When we reached the top of the temple, we saw a bird’s eye view of the nawabi city and also a breath taking view of the lake. It was really nice to be there, but the temple was about to close for the morning and we had to leave.
This reminds me that it was a very good day for us in a very weird sense. We went every where at the right time. I mean that we were very lucky to get to all the places at the nick of time. If we would have been a bit late to the temple we would not have got the darshans which is a very bad omen.
But this was not a day for bad luck, this was our lucky day. Next we planned to go to a theme park called Snow world. When we came out of the temple our driver told us that the tickets for the park would be available near the temple and there we can also come to know at what time the theme show will start. We were fortunate to have a driver like Tony, who knew all the ways around and also knew when to go where so that we enjoyed the place most.
So we next went to Birla Science Museum, which was just 5 minuets away from the temple.
There we purchased the tickets and came to know that the next show will be at 2 pm. So we had a good hour to spend before leaving. So we killed some time by roaming inside the museum and saw the some amazing things, like a machine which shows sound waves, a hologram showing mirror and many such scientific things.
We left for Snow World after an hour and reached there after a 15 minutes drive. There were other attractions there, like Monsoon Forest, Kart Cave, Dashing Cars and other stuff. We went into the building and were given jackets and gum-boots so that we could keep ourselves warm from the cold temperatures inside the snow world.
The place included a room made to resemble a snow hill. The temperatures were maintained at -5o C, and when we talked warm air came out of our mouths which looked as if we were having hookas. I completely loved it in the beginning, but later it got too cold and I was just waiting to get out.
Everything was time barred inside, snow fall from 2:20 to 2:25, Snow dancing from 2:25 to 2:45, everyone danced and as there was snow around them, it was called snow dancing, beat that
We came out after the stipulated 1 hour given to us, and while leaving we went to one of those jyotish walas who tell our fortune when a parrot picks out a card from a stack of cards lay in front of him. Hiren wanted to know about his future and so I too accompanied him when he went to the jyotish.
It turned out to be a fun thing. Hiren went first and after we gave the jyotish twenty rupees as dakshina the parrot, named Rajesh, picked the card with the picture of Goddess Savitri with a note resembling a news paper cutting. Hiren was told that he spends more money then he earns, which Hiren confirmed was just the opposite of what he actually does. Next the jyotish said that Hiren’s Shani got over in the previous month and now his good time will start. He said many general things that may be applicable to most of the normal people in India. He also said that Hiren will keep on studying till he is willing to study, that he will have to stay away from home for work, he should not enter into a partnership with total of three partners and that his work life will be great.
Next it was my turn, I placed my dakshina and waited for the parrot, named Rajesh, to pick out my fortune card. He picked out a card with the picture of Goddess Lakshmi. As soon as the card came out the jyotish hid the note with the picture and started saying that there is no fortune for this card and that it is a very auspicious card and he will tell me my fortune by looking at my birth chart which will cost me a further one hundred and fifty rupees. Very cheeky! But I refused to do this and told him to just give me my regular future forecast. But he insisted that I should at least pay sixty one rupees to know my fortune, wow he came down from one fifty to sixty in record time. But Nagesh refused to do this and the jyotish, poor guy that he was, told me to show my hand.
Next we went to have our lunch. And from there we planned to go to Salarjung Museum near Charminar. It was already 3:30 pm by the time we ate our lunch and when we left our driver said that the we would not be able to get in the museum as the close time is at 5 pm and we they stop selling tickets at least an hour before that. So Nagesh said that then lets go to Charminar instead and spend some time there.
But I suggested that we should at least go to the museum as it was on the way to Charminar and see if we are able to get inside, if not we will go somewhere else. But as I mentioned earlier, this was not a day on which anything went against our planning. So when we reached the museum at around 4:10 pm we got the tickets and saw that the museum stops selling tickets at 4:15 pm. I was very happy and so were Nagesh and Hiren. We went inside and straight away went to see the main attraction of Salarjung, the statue of ‘Veiled Rebecca’.
I had seen the lady before on my last trip to the city, and had fallen in love with her, and I fell in love all over again. Hiren and Nagesh too liked the statue.
Later we went to the western painting section and scanned through the founder’s gallery and the Chinese and Japanese sections. Then we went to see the clock which is made from 259 moving parts and is one of the major crowd puller of the museum. I found the clock silly, as I did the last time. A horde of people, gather in front of the clock every hour, when it gongs out the time. Most number of people comes at noon as it is when the clock gongs for a full twelve times. It was down right silly.
Well, however silly it was we too sat and saw the clock gong five times. The museum closed down and we headed towards Charminar. I was not too excited about see the monument as I did not like it the last time around.
Nagesh too said that they did not want to spend too much time under the minars. So we just saw the building while driving around it and went straight to Golkonda fort.
Here again our good luck was ahead of us.
The last time that I have come to the fort, I had found out that a special light and sound show takes place in the evening at 7 pm. So I thought that this time around also it will be at 7. But when we got down at the gate of the fort we came to know that the show starts at 6.30 pm during the months from October to February, and for the rest of the year it is scheduled at 7 pm, as during these months days are shorter and the show takes place after the sun sets.
So riding high on our luck, we bought the tickets and went inside the fort and walked to the area where the show takes place.
I had no idea what the show will be all about and started making weird pictures in my mind about what would happen. From the viewing area we could see the whole fort and there was a high platform from which we were told we would get a better view.
We went to the platform which was full with people, I saw that there were some chairs still unoccupied on the last row, and when I went there I saw that all but four chairs were empty. Lucky again, we all sat there and watched the show. The fort was looking awesome from where we sat.
The show told the history of the fort, and started with a gazal sung by Jagjit Singh, his soothing voice praising the fort. Later a narrative started, in which Amitabh Bacchan’s voice told the story of the fort, its history, the bloody battles the fort has seen, the kind hearted and art loving poet king, of Sant Ramdas who was kept as a prisoner in fort, the love story of the king’s son with a local dancer and the final fall of the fort during the Mughal Empire. Amitabh narrated the story amazingly and the lights focused the areas where the story was relating to. Multi coloured lights illuminated and dimmed as the story progressed.
The fort looked even more beautiful with the wonderful lights falling from different angles. The sound system was top class and the light system amazing.
We were asked not to use flash cameras during the show, as this would disturb others who were watching the show, but we are Indians and we do what we are asked not to do, so everyone went click crazy and the person who was operating the sound and light systems had to make an announcement again while the show was going on, almost scolding at the people who were taking pictures.
When the show ended we got out of the fort and later went to the hotel straight away as all were too tired to go elsewhere for dinner and ordered dinner in our room, which only constituted of deserts, yummmmmmmy! A perfect end to a perfect day.
After so many months of making and canceling then again making and again canceling plans, I finally came to Hyderabad on the 7th of February, 2008. I had been told many times, that I will be going to the city of pearls and was supposed to leave on the 23rd of January with Naresh, but later I was told that the plan has been cancelled and that I will be going later with Nagesh and Hiren. I was really disappointed as I and Naresh had made many plans about our trip to the city. But all the planning went in vain as he went without me and I was left to do some work which was taking forever to get over. I was really frustrated and the frustration increased when I came know that I was the only boy left in the office, as all the others had gone on some audit or the other.
So, when I reached here it was a relief, and I was really looking forward to the whole trip as it promised to be a good learning experience and also great fun. We reached here on Thursday and were greeted by Naresh and Praful when we went to the client’s office. First three days went quickly as there was not much work, we used this time to surf the net and talking (and also saw a movie called Apocalypto on Thursday night in our hotel room and another named Sunday on Friday night in PVR), while doing the small amount of work that we had.
[We had lunch at Taj Tristar everyday, dinner on Thursday at Paradise, Friday at the Movie Multiplex when we went to watch a movie. On Saturday Naresh and Praful left for Mumbai and that night we had dinner in our hotel.]
Sunday was a real fun day. We had planned to go on tour around the city and had made extensive plans. And surprisingly everything went according to the plan, which is a rarity going by my recent record.
I slept late on Saturday as I was watching a movie in my room. The movie was too slow and later the DVD stopped working. So the waking went in vain. But I was not to sad about the whole thing as the movie was a very slow law drama and I to be honest I was a bit relieved when it got stuck. Not that anyone was forcing me to watch the movie in the first place but I don’t know why but I sometimes get this weird urge to do weird things and this was one of them, watching boring movies and testing till when can you last.
So the Sunday started on a sleepy note. But India’s match against Australia made me get up early (at around 8.45). Then we had a filling breakfast and were on our way to our sightseeing (at around 11.30).
The sun was shining brightly even in the month of February and it was a perfect day for a drive around town. We started our day on a religious note and first went to Birla Mandir.
It was a very beautiful temple situated on a hill on the shore of the man made lake Hussain Sagar. When we reached the top of the temple, we saw a bird’s eye view of the nawabi city and also a breath taking view of the lake. It was really nice to be there, but the temple was about to close for the morning and we had to leave.
This reminds me that it was a very good day for us in a very weird sense. We went every where at the right time. I mean that we were very lucky to get to all the places at the nick of time. If we would have been a bit late to the temple we would not have got the darshans which is a very bad omen.
But this was not a day for bad luck, this was our lucky day. Next we planned to go to a theme park called Snow world. When we came out of the temple our driver told us that the tickets for the park would be available near the temple and there we can also come to know at what time the theme show will start. We were fortunate to have a driver like Tony, who knew all the ways around and also knew when to go where so that we enjoyed the place most.
So we next went to Birla Science Museum, which was just 5 minuets away from the temple.
There we purchased the tickets and came to know that the next show will be at 2 pm. So we had a good hour to spend before leaving. So we killed some time by roaming inside the museum and saw the some amazing things, like a machine which shows sound waves, a hologram showing mirror and many such scientific things.
We left for Snow World after an hour and reached there after a 15 minutes drive. There were other attractions there, like Monsoon Forest, Kart Cave, Dashing Cars and other stuff. We went into the building and were given jackets and gum-boots so that we could keep ourselves warm from the cold temperatures inside the snow world.
The place included a room made to resemble a snow hill. The temperatures were maintained at -5o C, and when we talked warm air came out of our mouths which looked as if we were having hookas. I completely loved it in the beginning, but later it got too cold and I was just waiting to get out.
Everything was time barred inside, snow fall from 2:20 to 2:25, Snow dancing from 2:25 to 2:45, everyone danced and as there was snow around them, it was called snow dancing, beat that
We came out after the stipulated 1 hour given to us, and while leaving we went to one of those jyotish walas who tell our fortune when a parrot picks out a card from a stack of cards lay in front of him. Hiren wanted to know about his future and so I too accompanied him when he went to the jyotish.
It turned out to be a fun thing. Hiren went first and after we gave the jyotish twenty rupees as dakshina the parrot, named Rajesh, picked the card with the picture of Goddess Savitri with a note resembling a news paper cutting. Hiren was told that he spends more money then he earns, which Hiren confirmed was just the opposite of what he actually does. Next the jyotish said that Hiren’s Shani got over in the previous month and now his good time will start. He said many general things that may be applicable to most of the normal people in India. He also said that Hiren will keep on studying till he is willing to study, that he will have to stay away from home for work, he should not enter into a partnership with total of three partners and that his work life will be great.
Next it was my turn, I placed my dakshina and waited for the parrot, named Rajesh, to pick out my fortune card. He picked out a card with the picture of Goddess Lakshmi. As soon as the card came out the jyotish hid the note with the picture and started saying that there is no fortune for this card and that it is a very auspicious card and he will tell me my fortune by looking at my birth chart which will cost me a further one hundred and fifty rupees. Very cheeky! But I refused to do this and told him to just give me my regular future forecast. But he insisted that I should at least pay sixty one rupees to know my fortune, wow he came down from one fifty to sixty in record time. But Nagesh refused to do this and the jyotish, poor guy that he was, told me to show my hand.
Next we went to have our lunch. And from there we planned to go to Salarjung Museum near Charminar. It was already 3:30 pm by the time we ate our lunch and when we left our driver said that the we would not be able to get in the museum as the close time is at 5 pm and we they stop selling tickets at least an hour before that. So Nagesh said that then lets go to Charminar instead and spend some time there.
But I suggested that we should at least go to the museum as it was on the way to Charminar and see if we are able to get inside, if not we will go somewhere else. But as I mentioned earlier, this was not a day on which anything went against our planning. So when we reached the museum at around 4:10 pm we got the tickets and saw that the museum stops selling tickets at 4:15 pm. I was very happy and so were Nagesh and Hiren. We went inside and straight away went to see the main attraction of Salarjung, the statue of ‘Veiled Rebecca’.
I had seen the lady before on my last trip to the city, and had fallen in love with her, and I fell in love all over again. Hiren and Nagesh too liked the statue.
Later we went to the western painting section and scanned through the founder’s gallery and the Chinese and Japanese sections. Then we went to see the clock which is made from 259 moving parts and is one of the major crowd puller of the museum. I found the clock silly, as I did the last time. A horde of people, gather in front of the clock every hour, when it gongs out the time. Most number of people comes at noon as it is when the clock gongs for a full twelve times. It was down right silly.
Well, however silly it was we too sat and saw the clock gong five times. The museum closed down and we headed towards Charminar. I was not too excited about see the monument as I did not like it the last time around.
Nagesh too said that they did not want to spend too much time under the minars. So we just saw the building while driving around it and went straight to Golkonda fort.
Here again our good luck was ahead of us.
The last time that I have come to the fort, I had found out that a special light and sound show takes place in the evening at 7 pm. So I thought that this time around also it will be at 7. But when we got down at the gate of the fort we came to know that the show starts at 6.30 pm during the months from October to February, and for the rest of the year it is scheduled at 7 pm, as during these months days are shorter and the show takes place after the sun sets.
So riding high on our luck, we bought the tickets and went inside the fort and walked to the area where the show takes place.
I had no idea what the show will be all about and started making weird pictures in my mind about what would happen. From the viewing area we could see the whole fort and there was a high platform from which we were told we would get a better view.
We went to the platform which was full with people, I saw that there were some chairs still unoccupied on the last row, and when I went there I saw that all but four chairs were empty. Lucky again, we all sat there and watched the show. The fort was looking awesome from where we sat.
The show told the history of the fort, and started with a gazal sung by Jagjit Singh, his soothing voice praising the fort. Later a narrative started, in which Amitabh Bacchan’s voice told the story of the fort, its history, the bloody battles the fort has seen, the kind hearted and art loving poet king, of Sant Ramdas who was kept as a prisoner in fort, the love story of the king’s son with a local dancer and the final fall of the fort during the Mughal Empire. Amitabh narrated the story amazingly and the lights focused the areas where the story was relating to. Multi coloured lights illuminated and dimmed as the story progressed.
The fort looked even more beautiful with the wonderful lights falling from different angles. The sound system was top class and the light system amazing.
We were asked not to use flash cameras during the show, as this would disturb others who were watching the show, but we are Indians and we do what we are asked not to do, so everyone went click crazy and the person who was operating the sound and light systems had to make an announcement again while the show was going on, almost scolding at the people who were taking pictures.
When the show ended we got out of the fort and later went to the hotel straight away as all were too tired to go elsewhere for dinner and ordered dinner in our room, which only constituted of deserts, yummmmmmmy! A perfect end to a perfect day.
