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....

Go Karting!!!

You have to let it all go....
Fear,doubt and disbelief. Free Your Mind.
-- The Matrix

I had a first hand experience of this when i went for Go karting . This was the third time i was going to drive the kart. The stakes were high. With competition from my office colleagues. But forget external competition. There's a greater internal battle to be won. With your own mind.

We have put own pre determined limits to the mind. To the way it thinks. To what can be done . To what cannot be. This cage does not allow us to go beyond. Unless we are really ready to free it.....

The track was a small 440 meters track, with lots U turns and turns. Making it quite interesting to race on. If you are driving a kart for the first time, it will be really first of its kind experience. Coz you do not know what you can do, neither are you sure about Kart's limits. The breaks, the turns would be done with utmost care . The speed might be slower than that of a bicycle. You would end up bumping on the side-walls most of the times. Had a great time watching few of the first timers.

I did not know how i was going to drive. One thing that always troubled me was that the last time i drove, my manager (good 15 years older than me) had easily lapped me many times in a four lap race. Gosh!! That was Runway 9 @ Hyd. I admired his driving,(he had quite an experience in go karting) , and wanted to improve my performance.

I started driving. The first few turns went good. To my disbelief, it was possible to make turns without releasing the accelerator. The breaks had to be applied hard.And not for too long. I gained confidence. The accelerator was pushed to its limits. I reminded myself of the famous matrix dialog, italicized above. It was time to put them to action, not letting them to remain just status message. It felt good. Things seemed to be in control. Or just in control. The kart skidded few times, without too much harm. Some of the turns left me with zero speed coz of too hard breaking. I tried to reduce my mistakes. The adrenaline was flowing big time.

I was driving behind the race leader. I had to take chances. There is no silver medal. Either you win, or you dont.

I did not win. One of my teammate, referrred to my attempt as aggressive and sometimes a bit too aggressive. May be i was.

Deserving Winners

This is a just world.
Unfair things do not exist.
You get some wrong ones, The rights balance it.
You reap what you sow. You get what you deserve.
Take it in your stride. You have to go ahead.
The Deserving don't whine.
The goal seekers don't mind.
Its out there to be taken.
You need to be ready.
Faith and Perseverance.
Belief and Self control.
They emerge triumphant, who remain unfazed.
Who achieve what they are made for,
Who reach where they ought to be.
And there is no better pair of words than Deserving Winners.
More so when you see it for real.