Its been a while now and it would be a waste if a traveller wouldn't tell the tales of his journey he made, especially if he wanted to tell them.
And so the journey began from our beloved Pune (bias is without a reason). The train was Konark express; it had been quite a while since Pondicherry happened, and now t'was the traveller journeying towards a new destination, a place called Hyderabad.
And so the journey began from our beloved Pune (bias is without a reason). The train was Konark express; it had been quite a while since Pondicherry happened, and now t'was the traveller journeying towards a new destination, a place called Hyderabad.
About Hyderabad -
Hyderabad (i/ˈhaɪdərəbæd/; Telugu: హైదరాబాద్ [ɦəjd̪ərɑːbɑːd̪], Urdu: حیدرآباد [ɦɛːd̪(ə)raːbaːd̪]) is the capital of Andhra Pradesh, India, and is one of the largest metropolitan cities in the country with an area of 650 square kilometres (250 sq mi). And the area of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority is 7,100 sq km., the second largest in the country. The city has a population of 6,809,970 with a further 7,749,334 living in the metropolitan area, making Hyderabad the fourth most populous city in India. The city is often known by the sobriquet The City of Pearls.
Hyderabad was established in 1591 AD on the banks of the Musi River located at the crossroads of North and South India on the tip of the Deccan Plateau, leading it to develop a unique culture.
Hyderabad was once a global center of the diamond and pearls trade, and, during late 20th and early 21st century, the city emerged as a major global center for the information technology (IT) industry, and bio-pharmaceutical industry.
The city is home to the Telugu Film Industry, known popularly as Tollywood.
The city is home to the Telugu Film Industry, known popularly as Tollywood.
Hyderabad is home to many historical sites, including the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage site of Chowmahalla Palace.The city is a regular tourist hotspot and carries many places of interest.
Yes, you're right, we all love the Wiki-engine, add my itch to Wikisearch the place before my trip. This always helps in relating things & facts with the place in less time.
So there I was, aboard the train at around 7pm in the evening, got the bedding and all done, finished dinner, sitting in the train... well twas an overnight journey so it kinda ended before it started, I landed at Secundrabad (a part of old Hyderabad as the say) the next day around 7am.
The accommodation was not exactly posh but decent enough, the temperature outside was hot as expected. The one thing that I noticed without an effort was the typical Hyderabadi accent with some locals, like in the movies (Angrez, to be specific), but let me tell you that it is total fun when it comes to hearing it live, like a sine wave, going high and low with its own time period.
I had this whole dreamy thing about the hyderabadi biriyaani floating above my head ever since the trip was planned. The day I reached I had my breakfast, but couldn't wait till dinner as the desperation had grown to an uncontrollable level.. ha hah.. So I had decided to delay my lunch. I was blessed that the much suggested Paradise Hotel (for Biriyaani ) was just next door to where I was put up. Okay, so there I sat alone, not much crowd, and without even looking at the menu the waiter offered I said "Ek Chicken Biriyaani" (sorry veg readers.. :P). When the dish appeared before me, I realised what I didn't calculate out of anxiety. The waiter looked at my face, smiled and said "Serves two sir". I had mixed emotions, but my wolves were too hungry to wait.
Yes. I finished the whole thing !! and I smiled at the waiter and said "Bill please", as I would call it "a smile for a smile" and with it came a sense of content and fullfillment, fullfillment that made me skip dinner and went on till the next day till breakfast.. ha hah..
The Paradise area was pretty nice, of about the place I realized that the Food joints, mobile stores, shoe shops, and garment stores were very easy to find, infact at every corner if I must say, all except the general stores that weren't so generally available.
On the earlier days I remember paying double the actual fare amount to the auto-walas cause they used to choose their own route and take me for a ride through the city, but on the third day that was solved by Nokia-maps.
The next thing the auto-wala would hear after my voice was the female voice guidance, telling him to go left /right, that was fun.. ha hah !!
(*Thank you Dr.Ivan Getting for giving mankind the GPS.)
Pretty neat.. aint they ??
The distance wasn't much, t'was around 12 kms only so I used to travel by the autorickshaw everyday, this went on for almost a month. The one thing that I always missed was my bike, especially more when another Enfield would thump by. My motive was to break free off the everyday rickshaw travel-racket. Searched for bikes on rent too, but they were all $-rates on the internet and eventually I would've landed up spending more.
The distance wasn't much, t'was around 12 kms only so I used to travel by the autorickshaw everyday, this went on for almost a month. The one thing that I always missed was my bike, especially more when another Enfield would thump by. My motive was to break free off the everyday rickshaw travel-racket. Searched for bikes on rent too, but they were all $-rates on the internet and eventually I would've landed up spending more.
One a few occasions though I did manage to get a friend's bike, and let me tell you that driving through the roads of Secundrabad was quite an enjoyable experience with the wide roads, less crowd and the green trees happening.
Can only imagine how great it would feel to Thunder down a four lane, minus the traffic and minus the smoke that comes along.
On the 16th day man found KFC.. Though it wasn't difficult to find, I never got the time to galavant much so finding it made my dinnner menu more simple.
Many of my days went waste because of the Telangana-Bandh happening all over the state, first the buses, then autos, sometimes both, the whole thing wasted time because then I could neither work nor go sight-seeing.
and that's one of my friend I used to share my evening snack with.
So ending this post, I'l make a list of what info do we take away -
1] Wiki-search
2] Single Biriyaani - Feeds Two
3] GPS navigates better than Rickshaw-walas (not always though, but you can always cross check)
4] Do check on the political turbulence in case you don't want to miss out on the tourism part.
What I missed out-
2] Single Biriyaani - Feeds Two
3] GPS navigates better than Rickshaw-walas (not always though, but you can always cross check)
4] Do check on the political turbulence in case you don't want to miss out on the tourism part.
What I missed out-
1] Snow world
2] Ramoji film city
and that's a major part that I missed out.. Part-II coming up shortly.. ;-)
2] Ramoji film city
and that's a major part that I missed out.. Part-II coming up shortly.. ;-)
