Hyderabad

For the Christmas vacations, I went to Hyderabad. If you don't mind reading a very long travelogue, this one is for you.

Day 1

            I know very well that if you are reading this, you are either bored to death on the train, feverishly editing it, or listening to it being read out in the class. Either way, let me get to the point. “Get to the point” may be an incorrect phrase here, since my co called point is extremely lengthy and exhaustive.  Therefore, I believe—Oh, whatever! Let me get to the—uh—events.

            I fell asleep at 12:30 in the morning on the Kesineni Volvo VL-117 bus, mainly due to the fact that the insensitive drivers had not turned the television off even so late. I proceeded to wake up in the morning at 5:30, because the bus had stopped so people could go to the bathroom (Actually not bathroom—on the ground, but I didn’t know the word). I simply fell into a deep slumber, this time waking up at around eight.

            The sunlight shone brightly upon the tinted windows, and even as it danced upon my eyelids, I was reluctant to fully admit my wakefulness. So I sat there silently, eyes closed my mind was somewhere on the line of consciousness and unconsciousness. I was quite contented that way, and could have stayed like that for hours if my father did not suddenly shake me until my eyelids fluttered open. I immediately assumed we were near our stop at Ameerpet. Yet again, I was wrong. My father informed me that we were to spend most of the morning at his friend’s house. Of course, I could not tell our location by just looking around. Every building seemed strange to me, and I will tell you why.

            Hyderabad is quite a large city. But only some of it, Cyberabad, is really developed and has all those modern glass structures. One example would be the Hi-Tech City(I have no idea why it’s called that). It’s kind of like a glass marvel. However, here in the residential area, the city is quite unique. Some buildings look like they went out of fashion twenty years ago, while others seem too modern compared to the afore mentioned buildings.

            Back to the story. We climbed off the bus at Patancheru, Lingampally, and called up two auto-rickshaws that were about to speed by. There was a small debate as to how high the price was, and when the drivers gave in, we loaded the rickshaws. One with a suitcase, a bag, and my parents along with my brother; and the other with a large suitcase, a small one, a bag, me, and Mr. Reddykrishna(who I’m sure you can guess is my dad’s friend).

            There are a few differences between Hyderabadi and Pune autos. Firstly, the Hyderabadi one’s are mainly yellow, and have barely any black paint on them. Second, and more important, is that they don’t make half the amount of noise the Pune ones do. And finally, the speed.

            As we were riding along, I found that our speed was slightly faster than that what I was used to. A terrible shock came to me, however, when Mr. Reddykrishna said:

            “They don’t know their way. You can go at normal speed.”

            After that simple statement, our speed increased so much that, at that time, I wasn’t even sure if a car could have been driven faster us. We shot past vehicles that were in our way, the wind buffeting my face as I looked forward. After many turns through narrow alleys and large main streets, we finally reached Serene County, the society that Mr. Reddykrishna lived in.

            It was like a self sustained community-with its own school, mall, and other everyday necessities. When we went to their house, Lilac 72, we quickly took brushed, took a shower, and drank milk. Then we were introduced to Vignesh and Shriya.

            Both were entirely captivated by the prospect of playing the Wii. However, they were interrupted so many times that they had just started playing computer games. It was at this time that we were served breakfast—a few small pooris, papads, and other delights. When we finished, we left the house and bid farewell.

            Mr. Reddykrishna was kind enough to drop us off at our hotel, Hotel Savera. We filled in the forms, acquired our keys, for room 209, and went to our room.

            There is something about Hotel Savera that makes me feel safe there; a feeling that I usually only get if I stay in the Best Western Hotel. Maybe it is because I have been there many times already, maybe not, but the feeling remains the same.

            At 12:18, we set off for the main objective of the trip:

            To see our villa.

            It’s located in Vertex Lakeview, Nizampet road. And if you thought that might be at least a little fun, let me tell you something;

            You’re totally wrong. I was bored ‘till the bones as I sat in front of my house, willing some sort of entertainment to come. Apparently, God either ignored me or didn’t hear me, because nothing whatsoever happened. At three, we left to eat. We ordered Masala Papads, Vegetable Biryani, and Butter Naans with Veg. Chatpat.

            After this, we went to Shilparamam. There was a huge crowd around dancers at the entrance because there was an “Arts and Crafts Show” going on. Masterpieces were at show here, but we did not buy anything. I marveled at their wonderous beauty. I stared for at least two minutes at a carefully sculpted statue of a lion, mouth open in a loud roar. However, we soon got lost and I had no more idea of where we were than a cement block should know its own chemical components. We found our way out after about fifteen minutes, and we hitched an auto ride back to the hotel.

            By the way, it’s Christmas. Horrid, isn’t it? I didn’t know Christmas would host such a horrible morning. Anyway:l

            “Il est le vingt-cinquieme decembre. Joyeux Noel! Et bon nuit!”

           

 

Day 2

            Based on my parents, I had woken up abnormally late. Based on the average world, I woke up at around 7:30. They urged me to get through my daily practices fast, and by eight o’ clock, I was sitting, refreshed, atop one of the beds, watching Discovery Science. A man, whom I thought I saw before, was standing on the screen. My brother recognized his face and said:

            “Hey! That’s Mark Williams!”

            Yep. Mr. Weasley was on the screen, teaching us the complex procedure of modern knitting. It was around eight thirty that we finally went down to the Fishland restaurant.

            Just to clear some doubts that some of you must have had, they don’t serve fish there at all. It still remains a secret as to why a person should have named a restaurant after something that was missing from its menu. The hotel generously gave two coupons (breakfast for children is free) that would earn us a free breakfast. We sat in the same seat we had sat in during the year 2005, 2009, and early 2010. There was a buffet placed upon a large table. I took two dosas and three idlis at first, then went on to take a butter sandwich (I simply relish the taste of butter). At the end of the meal, I was still not full, but I refrained myself from eating more. Once again, we set off for that villa(again).

            “History repeats itself” turned out to be a statement that was absolutely true. Since that’s exactly what happened this sunny morning. The familiar drowsiness of boredom settled upon my shoulders, and I just managed to rescue myself by reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which I had, thankfully, brought from Pune. My brother, likewise, was reading Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, from the Twig Trilogy of the Edge Chronicles. However, my parents spent more than twice as much time as I expected inside the house, so I managed to finish both books and read half of each again before they turned up.

            Yet this real estate fever was not finished already. We went to the Vertex office at Nizampet road, and while my parents talked to the manager, I watched my brother play Cricket on his Samsung Corby. The manager invited us to see his house and obtain some interior designing ideas from it. We went to the house in Vertex Pleasant.

            It was about half an hour before my parents came outside again, to see me staring blankly at another building. When they came out, I gave a little start, and began to put on m shoes. From there, we drove back to the villa.

            It was at five that evening when we finally ate lunch at a restaurant called “Anupama.” We ordered the same thing as yesterday: Masala Papad, Veg. Biryani with Veg. Chatpat, and Butter Naan. My peace, however, was short lived, since at 5:20, my father received a call from another interior designer, saying that he was already at the society. Finishing off the rest of the lunch pretty quickly, we hurried to the car, and told the driver, Ashraf, that we wanted to go back to Vertex Lakeview.

            “History repeats itself” should be good enough for you to understand.

            At around six, my parents had finished measuring and discussing possibilities of modular kitchen types(which I don’t understand and I probably never will) that would fit into our kitchen, then the arrangement of the sofas in the living room and so on. When they finally did come out, I was glad to hear that we weren’t going to another house somewhere or another; we were going to the Hyderabad Central mall.

            I am not interested in shopping, but if you were stuck in a car for the whole day too, you would want to do something rather than wishing your parents could come out o the house faster, even if that certain something is walking around aimlessly in a mall.

            The trip took about one hour, because of the horrid traffic conditions in the city. While my father chatted excitedly to Ashraf about the places in Hyderabad, my mother, my brother, and I felt extremely bored and sleepy. With nothing left to do, my brother fell asleep on my shoulder, I on my mother’s, and my mother on the window; so we somewhat resembled dominoes that had toppled over.

            When I finally woke up, we had parked in front of a HUGE mall, maybe a bit larger than Pune’s own SGS mall. We just walked through all the floors, until we reached Café Coffee Day. I ordered a Hot Choco Latte, my parents each took a Capuccino, and my brother took a chocolate doughnut and a Hot Choco Latte. The drink was quite ]good tasting, and it made me feel refreshed, although it also somewhat filled a part of my stomach. Once again, we climbed though the floors, until the fifth and the last—the Food Court.

            I ordered an entire tub of popcorn, while my brother settled down with a cheese sandwich with French fries and Coke. My parents took nothing, however--they were feeling too full.

            When I was asked if I could finish that amount of popcorn, I said, quite dramatically:

            “No amount of popcorn is too much for me.”

            I mentioned that I love butter, and I love popcorn. Both of them together is my favorite snack - unhealthy and yummy.

`As we were walking back to the hotel, since it was nearby, my mother spotted some guavas at the other side of the road. Considering the fact that her love for guavas rivals my love or buttered popcorn, you should know what happened next…

            So here I am, eating one of the guavas and writing my entry for today.

            Good night.

Day 3

I have no idea if I have grown an attachment to Pune, but I found myself desiring the chill of the mornings, the liveliness, and the greenery compared to this barren wasteland of a city.

Once again, I lugged myself off the bed, at 7 this time,  performed my daily practices, and sat on the bed.

Half an hour later, we ate at Fishland—I at five idlis with sambar, a butter sandwich, and a bowl of cereal. We left, again, for YOU-KNOW-WHERE.

History repeats itself. Long story short. My parents returned at 12:30, and we left off for Athidhi Biryani House. It was quite a pleasant atmosphere, with a beautiful fountain running right next to us. We ordered a Masala Papad (for the third time), four Butter Naans with Butter Chicken, and Chicken Dum Biryani. With warm-feeling tummies, we left off for YOU-KNOW-WHERE.

Once they were finished, I was excited when I heard that we were leaving Vertex Lakeview, but my spirits dropped like a tombstone when I heard that we were going to an interior shop.

Inside, there was a man with long hair and many gold chains around his neck. He spoke exceptionally loudly and I jumped out of fright every time he said something. In spite of his efforts to seem polite, it was obvious that he was not pleased to see us.

His taller and rounder helper showed us around the shop and told us about the modular kitchen trays and materials, before wishing us a good bye. Once we left, we resolved to go back to the hotel.

So now I’m lying on a bed, witing for the bus to come-Wait! I didn’t tell you, did I? We’re going to leave to Vijayawada at 10:30 on a Volvo VL-110 bus. Our seat numbers are 23, 24, 25, and 26. We’re going to our grandparent’s house over there. We’re supposedly to reach the destination at 5 AM, but we’ll probably get there at 6 if we’re lucky.

Here’s something to think about…..Vijayawada is also called Blazewada. Why?

Day 4

I slept quite well last night, but I had to wake up at 5:45 since our stop was near. It was pitch black outside, so there was no way of knowing the time. When we got off, though, I realized that there were many people dressed in red walking past. I found out that they were the”Durga Bhavani” from my mother. There were kids wrapped in shawls walking by, shivering in the thin protection. As we walked, I realized that the ground was always littered with something—be it cotton from the trees above of plates from a restaurant nearby. At last, we reached the turn that would lead to my grandparents’ house. I was slightly surprised to see that a school had turned up over there, and then I reminded myself that Vijayawada was still developing, so schools could turn up anywhere.

My grandparents lived in a four storey building of their own construction. They personally lived on the second floor, while the fist and third floors were given for renting. The fourth floor was the terrace that provided a scenic view of the area nearby.

Once we reached the second floor, it caught us off guard to find out that the gate before the house was open. Befuddled, I rang the doorbell. A light flicked on inside the house as we sat down on the chairs outside. Locks clicked, lights flicked, and finally, the door was pulled open.

My grandfather greeted us with a smile. He was wearing a navy blue vest and a scarf around his neck. He sat down on the sofa and motioned for us to do the same.

Naturally, he and my parents began discussing about the house, so my brother and

 I retired to the bed in the master bedroom. I sat quietly, trying to rest but I couldn’t for some strange reason. So I got up, brushed, and sat next to my grandfather. When I couldn’t find my grandmother, I asked him where she was.  He said that she had gone walking and would come back at 7. It was six thirty at that time, so I wandered about the house trying to see any changes in the furniture or anything.

The rest of the morning was quite uneventful. At nine, my grandmother and my mom had made idli with sambar, which was one of my favourite dishes for breakfast(as you must have understood by now). At eleven, my grandfather and I went to get chicken.

It was a five minute ride on his Honda Activa. He parked it at a chicken shop nearby the place where we had got off the bus. There were flies buzzing about the area, so I had to keep swatting them away so I don’t get tickled to death by them.

When the shop sign said “Fresh” I’m afraid I misunderstood it. A man took a chicken, mercilessly ignoring its pitiful wails of horror and kept it on a weighing machine. The chicken relaxed for a while, thinking it was safe. Then the man lifted it again, raised his hatchet and---

I shut my eyes, but it is impossible not to hear something. The chicken gave its last scream in its lifetime-when the man severed its head. I couldn’t help but notice the red liquid spilling on the floor; I couldn’t help but see the cats prowling around hungrily nearby. I averted my gaze towards greenish sewage water that was flowing underneath. Dragonflies darted hungrily above the water, diving down to try to catch some peculiar bugs that could, strangely, stand upon the water. They flew up furiously when there was a slight disturbance in the water.

The dragonflies dove quickly, but not fast enough to catch any. Finally, they shot away, furious at themselves for being so slow. Presently, my grandfather came out; so we drove off on the Activa.

That evening, my grandparents gave my mother some absolutely dazzling saris-I couldn’t even guess how much they could have cost. What’s more, they wanted to buy “us grandchildren” new clothes. At length, we went to Kalanjali. 

 I took a white and blue checkered shirt with white pants, while my brother took a green shirt with black pants. We went to the MEN’S section and bought my father a brown and yellow checkered shirt with brown pants. I had the notion of buying our grandparents clothes, as a treat, but we couldn’t due to continuous refusals by my grandfather.

After buying the clothes, we went around the city, inally stopping at a place which gave a food called Mysore Bhajji. The food was extremely good with something called ginger chutney (it’s not as disgusting as it sounds), so we each took four. We finally went back home, took a bath, ate dinner, and, right now, its around ten o’ clock, and I’m just managing to stay awake. So:

Goooood ni…zzzzzzzz

Just kidding.

Good Night.

Day 5

I woke up at six thirty this morning, after a good night’s sleep. I passed the time though talking and other everyday events, until it was nine o’ clock. At nine, we ate lunch.

No, I’m not crazy. In order to fill our stomachs for a longer time, we ate a full-fledged lunch for breakfast. After that, we hurriedly packed everything. I slipped out my hankie, which, I believe, is more useful than a towel. We left at nine forty, extremely early due to the fact that there was a diversion in the road we usually took.

The diversion was for the safety o the Durga Bhavani I mentioned before. Last year, two or three of them had been killed by a speeding bus, so the government has taken appropriate action.

After a lengthy trip around a large hill, we finally completed the longer route to the station. However, we only knew the train number, not the platform or the timing. So, naturally, we walked to Platform 5.

While my father went off to inquire about the details of the train, my grandparents sat under the shade while we three stood in the sun for no apparent reason. A quarter of an hour later, my father finally returned, telling us that the train would come at eleven, and at the platform we were standing on right now. Then, an announcement that our train would come on platform seven rang out.

After some initial confusion, we walked to platform seven. And just in time. The train came roaring past, whistling loudly without cause. We three climbed on, wished a final farewell, and embarked on a journey that happened to be very, very, very, BORING.

At first, I stared out of the window, played Atlas with my parents, ate dosas and vadas, pestered my brother as he tried to sleep, and finally fell asleep myself.

My prediction (first paragraph, day one) turned out to be a prophecy that was true. I did read it at about six in the evening, when I had no better occupations.  I took Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, read it or sometime, felt bored, and wished for something unusual to happen.

My wish was answered in a strange way; with a baby. A big, brown eyed baby who always had here middle and index finger in her mouth. A baby who loved to play with books, and had chewed on mine ten minutes ago. It was quite funny hearing her attempts to talk, but only succeeding in a silly gurgling noise.

One other thing about the baby is that she cried and laughed easily. I’m sure that as I sleep tonight, I will hear her cry, then laugh, then cry….

I am sorry to say that this is the last time I will write to you, so

AU REVOIR!