Showing posts with label Hyderabad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hyderabad. Show all posts

The first hail in my journeys

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A shower is all it takes for spontaneity
It also justifies madness.
Singing and dancing,
jumping in the dirt.

A shower lifts up your spirits.
You close your eyes,
you breathe in the smell,
of the wet earth and of flowers.

You let the drops hit you,
 lightly at first, and then
the water slaps you,
washing you with mirth.


Don't be fooled by the water.
It showers overwhelming emotions.
It can mend broken hearts.
While the breeze caresses you,
and wet clothes stick to your skin.

The first piece of hail on your palms.
You stare at the cold, solid form at first.
Then touch it and you jump again
and scream and watch it melt.

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A colourful Dussera at Shilpramam

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When I got to Hyderabad I made a list of places and things I had to do before I finished my MA. Lately Shilparamam had been calling out to me from that list. It was Dussera, which is a festival where people are supposed to shop and a close friends Birthday, which gave my friends and me a good enough excuse. Not like we needed one but moving on. Shilpramam is a handicraft fair of sorts where people from different parts of the country put up stalls. I was hoping there would be a variety of food stalls but people came there only to shop apparently.


Entry fees: 25 for adults and 10 rupees for children.
Timings: 10.30a.m. to 8.30 p.m.

The place has a very earthy feel to it. The gate was interesting, it looks more like the entrance to a fort. I am not sure why there is a man on a horse on either side. Maybe Shilparamam was supposed to be something else before they turned it into a handicrafts village in 92.







As you enter there is a small temple, or that is atleast what we thought it was with statues of devotees dancing in amusing and strange poses. My demented and spontaneous friend decided she must pose like one of them and I clicked away.
 Below on the left was a beautiful statue of Ganpati blessing all the people who enter into the paradise called Shilparamam and decide to buy themselves and their family wonderful gifts. On the right is a chime on the gate that I took a fancy to, it just had such a rustic charm.

An ethnic shopper would go berserk like the way we did. And the biggest plus point was that although each of us had atleast three bags each we had still not burnt a hole in our wallets. Haggling can work wonders, if you know the tricks of the bargain trade. We had bought stoles, skirts, kurtas and there were sarees, bags,chappels, dress materials, jewellery and much much more. All the stuff like I mentioned earlier was ethnic to the roots, so people who like flashing brands, this is definitely not your deal.






As I walked around I lost my friends a number of times, rather we all lost each other. The various colours, fabrics, trinkets called out to us. Just walking by those colours can also be quite an experience as you hear various languages, tourists or even locals. There was a flirtatious Gopala, who was very eager to be photographed. He beckons and I already well amused go up to him and I am given a card and told to e-mail the picture. Check him out in the video below, he is such a star!



Check out:
Shilparamam's official site

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Indian family Khatri: Journey to catch the Mumbai-Hyderabad Express

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This one has a tired nevertheless happy ending. And for some reason it got me thinking of the adventures of Swiss Family Robinson; hence the blog post title So, this is how it goes.

I need to board the 9.50p.m. Hussain Sagar train from C.S.T./V.T. station in South Bombay and its already 9.05 and our Domino's Pizza just arrives. I like to chew my food, so all I get is one piece of pizza and we rush out 15 minutes later to catch the train.


As we are about to get into a taxi, my parents convince me to board the train from Dadar station, which is where I usually get off, when I take the train from Hyderabad to Bombay. We reach Dadar station at 9.40 only to find out that the train doesn't stop there. 

So, all of us decide we are going to chase this train to the next stop-Kalyan. So what if we had to go out of Mumbai to catch the train. Half staggering half running with my luggage, my family and me take the next train that goes closest to Kalyan, at a time when people are returning home from work, women selling everything from fish, to vegetables and accessories. 

My mother and me stood besides the door with some luggage while people shoved, pushed, kicked and punched us to maintain their balance. I was just glad my mother didn't faint out of claustrophobia. We get off at the last stop-Dombivali and got on the luggage compartment of the train immediately leaving for Kalyan, still optimistic about making it in time for the train.

As it turned out, we missed the train by minutes and took a train back to the city and were lucky enough to get a friendly rickshaw driver (wish he had relatives in Hyderabad *sigh*) who took four of us with our luggage to the airport. Another night spent at the airport with the help of an espresso shot and it was sweet dreams all of next day.

ps: I had no intention of scaring people off, from the Bombay trains. They are awesome, really. And, besides you get used to it, eventually.
Moral of the story: always fight for free pizza and enjoy it.

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Not so touristy spots

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On the itinerary:
Nehru Zoological Park, Sudha Car Museum and Snow World. (Hyderabad)

The crew- two roommates, a boy they have never met before, a driver who has the gall to flick the Nikon D 60.

Our first stop was The Zoo cum sanctuary situated next to Mir Alam Tank.It was a long ride from Tarnaka which we fruitfully used to get ourselves acquainted with one another.

We were excited by the fact that they had White Tigers. The only good thing Arvind Adiga did by writing the book was to divert attention to save the white tiger campaign and probably also some funds. And he got the Man Booker prize. *sigh*

Walking around in the summer sun was not so bad after some ice-cream and good conversation. The entry is Rs 10 for adults and they have a train ride that takes you to a part of the zoo, which is another ten bucks. We ooh-ed and ah-ed at deers, leopards, elephants and pointed with squeaks at the giraffe. Aren't they just adorable? Finally our eyes rest of the White Tiger, it was magnificent, striped, looking at us fiercely and thats when we went-
Woohoo!



We took the Lion Safari and saw a Lion lying in the shade too lazy to bother looking at us. It was old and too damn comfortable sprawled in the shade of a large tree. We were lucky to spot a lioness but no tigers on our safari but I had already seen the white tiger on a cliff like structure surrounded by a water body that had fishes and turtles lounging in it. On the way out a little kid in the van points at an antelope and screams - "Look, camel!"

Post the safari we were back with our driver who looked grumpy as he had realised that the hidden camera was back with its rightful owner. He took us to our next stop - the car museum in Bahadapur. We were impressed by what we had read about it online. Only hand made car museum in the world. Guinness award for world's largest tricycle. There were cars in weird avatars. Burger, bed, cup, football...a tweety car! I don't think any of us wanted to be seen
riding any of those cars. But the tricycle was worth a glance.

After walking around in the heat for the entire day we were more than looking forward to the next stop. Snow World.

Snow for some reason is usually employed in Literature to portray gloom. For me it means sparkling, white and pure joy. I was tempted to slip some into my mouth. There are a number of reasons why I love snow. The cool breath on my skin, hands numbed due to the snowballs flying at each other after running a few steps. And you never sweat!

Snow World is located next to Tank Band (a place you must try driving by if you get the chance) at Hyderabad. Its 250 bucks for an hour which is pretty decent considering the amount I would have to spend if I had to take a trip to say the Himalayas. But Himachal is on the 'must visit places before I die list'.

Snow World has been well maintained and they have add-ons packages and eateries outside while you have to wait for your alloted time. For entertainment you could coax one of your friends to take the rodeo ride, while you relish liqueur chocolates bought from one of the little shops outside.

Before stepping in you have to deposit your mobile phones. Although you take a bag with you. They give you gloves, a jacket, gumboots and socks to put on. Be a smarty pants and take your own pair of socks, like the way I did. I kind of liked the whole look. Once the grand doors opened we all scampered in. Soon after began the snow flinging session.

For some reason instead of a snow man they had a man gorilla with man boobs. We covered him up with snow where we felt necessary.There was a snow ride which we went for next. There was a snow hotel serving coffee and tea in ice-cups for an extra charge of course. We settled for regular coffee and sneakily spiked it with some vodka we had in our resourceful bags. There were snowflakes in the air all of a sudden with the sound of a chimney. It was fun and we were freezing but the coffee vodka was helping. If you ever think of trying it, coffee-vodka actually tasted pretty darn good. The snow storm dissipated and suddenly there were disco lights and music blaring in the polar bear corner. We preferred dancing while we tried playing snow-football away from the herd.

On the whole we were glad we saw all three places. It was a day well spent, by the end of which three of us parted like we were childhood buddies.



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