For
a traveler it is not the destination that matters, but the journey. You don’t
have to google it, I just made it up. Err… I just googled it, someone from
America has already said that!!! I was
on an on-site support to one of our customers for two weeks and my destination
was Hyderabad. I was here one month back, but that time it was hectic and the
places I saw was limited to the journey from airport to the IT Park. This time
it was not hectic, I had a lot of free time and some days only that. Some days I
even took the courage to ward off boredom by reading editorials in Hindu. There
was also a pathetic situation when I refreshed my facebook page thrice in one
minute and was momentarily excited to see a notification, only to my dismay It
was an invitation to some app. I had one weekend in Hyderabad so I had decided
to bring my family here for a short vacation. I booked a hotel nearby mine for
my parents and had planned to smuggle my brother into my hotel. A room for my
parents in my hotel was denied by the numbers in my monthly pay check.
They
arrived on Saturday morning; I had rented a car and went to pick them up from
the Bus station. On their arrival I asked my father which all places he wished
to see. I got a prompt answer; Golconda fort and Charminar. I guess these are
the only names that he remembers from his old social science book (same is the
case for me). The same question to my mother was met with a smirk and an answer
in low voice. She just wants to do shopping. Similar question to my brother will
be just a waste of time, obviously he needed some pics to post in facebook. Our
driver took us straight to the hotel; we had our breakfast and started for our
first visit: Golconda Fort.
Golconda
fort had a lot of historical importance and architectural admiration to be
done. There are guides available to explain all these. But when a guide
approached and told us his fees my father lost interest in guide, for my mother
it is the shopping area outside the fort that mattered, for my brother to take
photos; guide seemed redundant. For me, admiration of beauty was anyway
restricted for two reasons. One I was with my parents. Two, most of them wear
purdhas. We followed the direction mentioned in sign boards to see all places.
The view from Golconda fort was good. I wish I had the ability to admire the
architectural brilliance of that fort. A proper visit will take at least 3
hours, we completed it in one hour. We went to the shops adjacent to the fort,
there we spent more than one and half hours on shopping and bargaining. People
usually advise me to travel before getting married I guess this is the reason
why they say that.
Our
next destination was Charminar, It was a busy street with “Lad bazaar “adjacent
to it. I bet my mother was thinking only about visiting the bazaar during the
53 steps ascending to be done in charminar. These places look beautiful only in
the photographs. I might be hurting many architectural admirers but for a
common man like me (or below common man) a visit to these places is done only for
namesake. But for my mother, a visit to Lad bazaar is no small affair; it
involved bargaining, shameless fighting and finally gifts for a few of my
cousins. Our driver being an experienced one took care to take us through all
the shortcuts and had taken 1.5 hours for travelling 10 km (sarcasm intended).
We spent another half an hour finding him in the busy streets near Charminar
and Mecca masjid. We finally decided to wind up for the day after visiting
Chowmahalla place. I don’t have to explain it as the same story is repeated
here too. We returned back to hotel. I took them to paradise hotel to try the
biriyani about which I had boasted a lot and which they detested after having .
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| At Golconda Fort |
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| Charminar |
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| Mecca Masjid |
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| At Chomwmahalla Palace |
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| Vintage Cars in Chowmahalla Palace |
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| Rolls Royce |
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| Vintage Vehicles in Ramoji |
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| With an old friend |
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| It took me 5 min to get this photo |
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| Spending Quality time with chaplin |
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| Don't know her name but i guess she enjoyed my company |
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| Mughal Gardens cum Brindhavan at Ramoji |
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| In the sets of ramayana |
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| Inspired from Spider man |
I successfully smuggled my brother to my hotel and we
decided to spend a night swim on the open terrace swimming pool. The next
day we had plans to visit Ramoji Film
city. Ramoji film city was something worth going ten years back. Almost
everything there is outdated now. A
short journey in the vintage bus is something worth remembering. It took us
through many film sets, which included the Mughal gardens, London Street,
Indian bazaar, housing colony, air port cum hospital building, railway station
cum police station, Ramayana TV series sets. This short journey spoiled all my good
memories about films. The realization that I was being deceived all these years
was something hard to accept. We went through many film sites like munnabhai,
yes boss etc. Myself and my brother spent time playing dashing cars, video
games and ferris wheel in the final few hours in Ramoji. It had started raining
in Hyderabad, as we waited for our cab to come and pick us up. We went straight
to Inorbit mall near our hotel. That was a small effort to get my parents
adjusted with the modern lifestyle. I had a hard time convincing my mother to
get into an escalator. I ordered small meal from KFC thinking they won’t like
it. But to my surprise I had to be in queue two more time to satisfy their
hunger. The two days went very fast and the next day I went to drop them. After
dropping them I realized that I was home sick and started thinking about the
purpose of this life and the usual stuff like that.
I
was supposed to leave that Friday back to Bangalore, but my stay was extended
for another three days. Being tired of luxury I decided to roam around
Hyderabad. But unlike Bombay a walk through Hyderabad isn’t mesmerizing. It was
similar to any common place, nothing great about the streets. No ancient
architecture to admire. One thing worth going in Hyderabad is IMAX. For a first
timer it is a wonderful experience. An advice will be to select the back seats
with no one in front of you. It doesn’t make a difference if it is third or
forth row. But if no one is there in front of you then the experience will be
great. The screen is huge compared to
the multiplexes and 3D film will be a feast for the eyes. The IMAX visit made
my visit to Hyderabad appreciable. Though it is good in many cases like late
night food, cheap auto, train connectivity and pricing of film ticket. One
strange thing that I felt when I was away for more than two weeks from my
company is that I miss my company.
