Hyderabad - I

Here are five of the ten things that defines hyderabad for me.

10) There are autos, there are buses and then there are six seaters (or dukkar auto as any nagpurian would put it)

As i had no personal vehicle in hyderabad, i had to rely on public transport.
The autos would take you anywhere from kondapur to jubilee check post. Kothaguda to Manikonda. provided five people were sitting in the auto. The front two seats besides the auto driver were the most coveted ones. It probably made you feel like you were travelling in a mumbai local. (Dont mind if i have stretched my imagination a bit too much). The shared autos were fast and cheap. especially if you wanted to go to Hyd Central from Hi tech city.

The buses were always crowded except for the mid afternoon and late nights. I loved travelling late nights. The illumination inside the bus, mild breeze and lots of empty spaces made for great combination. The 47K & the 10H. I miss them so much.

The Six seaters on the Kukatpally-Ameerpeth had an aura around them. Although somewhat uncomfortable, they provided a different dimension to the public transport.


9) The Movie halls
The uncountable movie halls that Hyderabad has , at stone throw distance from each other. Many of my office hours were spent at the Hi Tech city hall, watching any new movie that was screened there . The IT organizations could do well to move that hall somewhere faraway from the hi tech city. I definitely went places, with my dear friend Mr Deepu (yeah deepu is not a girl) , in search of movie halls. Life would have been a tad dull without the movies and the movie halls.


8) The MMTS Connection!
I cant explain this. The Multi modal transport system (in short 'Local Train') fascinated me. Period. In my two years @hyd, i traveled by mmts only once. Unfortunate as i was.

7) The Hyd Central.
This place has earned a name in itself. A weekly visit to this place was always on. Either for a movie @ PVR, or for a pizza @ Pizza hut or a for just plain timepass. I had great Central fans with me in Miss Annie & Mr Deepu, who never missed a chance to visit THE place.
(But they never took me to the General bazaar, Secunderabad; a place i heard so much about, never got a chance to visit. )

6) The language.
The 'Italian of the East' is a sweet language. (Iron Bull would definitely disagree). Having heard it fairly constantly over few months, it was not long before i started using it. Much to the amusement of the subjects with whom i interacted. The fun had begun. The telugu movies made much more sense now. I could decipher conversations. The learning continued. The bus rides were more meaningful now, happily listening to someones conversation. The auto rides became interesting. I had become the interpretor for my room mates. A fake gulti.

To be continued....