In the land of Nawabs

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 .

At Golconda Fort

Charminar

Mecca Masjid

At Chomwmahalla Palace

Vintage Cars in Chowmahalla Palace

Rolls Royce

Vintage Vehicles in Ramoji

With an old friend

It took me 5 min to get this photo

Spending Quality time with chaplin

Don't know her name but i guess she enjoyed my company

Mughal Gardens cum Brindhavan at Ramoji

In the sets of ramayana

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.