Musings of an Idiot

Farewell India

'Khansama' was a no go since it was a very small restaurant and we ended up going to 'Terrace Bay' in Punjagutta and it was a fantastic experience as the food was by far the best I've had in Hyderabad - that's besides mum's home cooked food. The ambience was nice and the service was impeccable. The only negative point I can think of is that even though it is called the Terrace Bay - there aren't any views to boast of - if only it was a couple of floors higher. Recommended starters Goulauti Kebab and Patiala Tangdi.

The last 2 days have been pretty weird for me - on one hand I've been mentally preparing myself for the grind as soon as I get back and on the other hand there is this sense of sadness about leaving mum and dad. I guess it is a good decision on my part to visit them every year - that's the least I can do at this point. The last couple of days disappeared into packing up and also saying farewells to everone either in person or on the phone.

In those 2 days I also managed to sneak in one more telugu movie 'Pokiri' {after abandoning 2 movies after 30 minutes or so as they were boring and nothing happened in those 30 minutes} - it was a popcorn flick and was entertaining for what it was but the problem I have with movies like that is the unrealistic expression of violence. The hero can single handedly kill 100 odd goons without breaking a sweat or spoiling his perfect hair style after a massive 10 minute fight. The other thing that struck me was that most of the female roles in bollywood movies are pretty minimal. The heroine is required to dance in a couple of songs; be able to first hate the hero and then fall in love with him without any emotional reasoning; and then should fall into distress so that the hero can come and save her. There are variations to those simple combinations but most of the movies do tend to do that - atleast all the ones I saw followed that pattern, I am generalizing and there are movies which do actually give the females an emotional arc and a better tie into the story but in general it reflects on the gender equation within the Indian society. Maybe I should try my hand at making a 'masala movie' and see how much I can enhance that equation. :-)

Today dad came down with severe cold, so only mum came to drop me off at the airport. The drive to the airport is now much quicker because of a new expressway which cuts about 20 minutes off the journey time but it is still a pain driving 30KM odd from the city to get to the airport. It was a quick drop off and I had to ask mum not to cry as otherwise I'd have cried as well. Hyderabad Airport has free 45 minutes internet access for travelers but the only hiccup was that you needed a cellphone number for them to send you login details - if you are using it for the first time. Apparently it is for security purposes but in a way it is silly because what if the international traveler doesn't have a local cellphone on which to send the login details to?

On the domestic flight I got a pleasant surprise as sridevi akka's husband was there, going to Bombay a.k.a Mumbai as well. We caught up at Mumbai airport briefly before we parted ways and I caught the free transit bus from the domestic airport to the international airport.My onwards flight to Hong Kong is not till 4.00 AM, which means I am here writing this from the waiting lounge in Mumbai Airport {no free internet access, so will be posting this once I get to Hong Kong} after finishing all the security checks and immigration requirements. My initial impression of Mumbai airport when I first arrived in India was pretty bad because of the state of the arrival lounge and all the construction going on outside but the departure section of the airport is actually quite good. Pretty flash I must say and I wasn't expecting that. I don't think i'll be able to sleep till I get onto the flight, so I'll just be drinking lots of water and doing some work.

My India trip this time has been fantastic in a very different sort of way. This is the first time in ages that I've spent so much time with my family and it felt really good even though I remained at home most of the time {instead of travelling heaps}. There were times when I was exasperated at the things around me but it was still good being in the midst of all that was happening. I got to know more about my family and also learnt a few things about myself - like i've changed a lot in the past 6 years; i was a pampered child in many ways when I was studying {i guess because I am the only child} etc. Most of all it cleared up some things in my head about things I need to improve and change within myself to become a better person.

Farewell India, for now.
Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, Travel

posted by Amit @ 12:51 PM 0 Comments

Food and more movies

Hyderabad is famous for various things but in terms of eating the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is Hyderabadi Biryani. Biryani from Paradise Restaurant is supposed to be really good but I tried it last year and I was pretty disappointed as it was nothing special and this time I decided to try some from Four Seasons Restaurant {they have a branch in Kondapur} and the biryani was amazing. I'd rate it 9/10 in terms of taste, texture and value for money and definitely a must try if you are in Hyderabad. The other restaurants I've tried are Blue Fox, Blue, Ginger Court & Angeethi - and of those I'd recommend Angeethi as the food tasted nice and the ambience was nice as well. Planning on trying out Khansama later this evening and will update this post to reflect on that experience. All in all the food the Hyderabadi food is amazing but the city needs to open up it's palate a bit more to give international cuisine like japanese, thai, vietnamese, indonesian etc a chance to titilate the taste buds.

Dad arranged for a driver to drive me around yesterday, as I am now completely useless at driving anything in India because of the chaotic traffic and lack of regard for any kind of road rules. The idea was to take a few snaps at Charminar and Hussain Sagar Lake before finishing off the rest of my shopping. I finally managed to take a few snaps that gives some inkling about life in Hyderabad. It was a saturday morning, so it's not crowded much which explains the empty space in the photos. Incidentally - this is the only city where I can use all the 3 languages I know while conversing with anyone and I do like that.


Since mum and dad's old DVD player wouldn't play a bunch of DVDs i decided to shop around for a new one and at the electronics store I was switching between all the 3 languages without realizing it since the salesman was doing the same. After purchasing the DVD, I went ahead and purchased a bunch of DVDs so that the DVD player wasn't sitting there in the house just as a show piece. Once I got home I ripped into a bunch of movies. The best of the lot was a telugu movie called 'Gammyam'.

'Gammyam' flowed naturally and it was well acted {without overacting for most part}, well edited and well directed. It was a pleasant surprise as compared to 'Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani' that I watched a couple of days back at IMAX. The other movies I finished watching were 'Sarkar' and 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' - I had started watching those movies when they were screening on TV but had given up on them because of the 15 minute commercial breaks. 'Sarkar' was well shot and well acted but the editing was off because the pace was dead slow because of excessive use of looks and glances. The movie was short as it is at 2 hour run length but if it was paced right it would've been 1.5 hours only. 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' was again well shot but it was an action flick and the shoot out does get pretty mind numbing after a while. Another movie I watched was 'Welcome' - it was a comedy and half the movie was funny and good while the other half just dragged on and on and on. It's almost like the script writers spent most of the time writing the first half of the movie and just mashed together the ending to complete the script.

A thing which throws me off in all Bollywood movies is the dubbed audio. The film makers don't use synch sound while making a movie for obvious reasons - India is too noisy and there is no way that they can get clean sound without a massive production budget. The only movie I know in most recent times that used synch sound is 'Lagaan' and they had budget over runs because of that decision. I am dreading doing ADR for just one of the scenes in 'The Moments In Between' because it is so tedious and hard to capture the same essence and inflictions and meaning to the words recorded in ADR, even though the words are the same as those on location. So I do admire the fact that all the movies here are dubbed over from start to end and for most part the performers and the directors and the sound editors pull off this impossible task with remarkable results. It does get distracting when the words don't match the lip movement and that's something that can't be avoided when dubbing over dialogue and that's the price that bollywood movies pay for having crisp audio.

Anyway, that's me for now.
Later,
Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, Travel

posted by Amit @ 8:10 AM 0 Comments

Movie this and movie that

The past few days have been pretty chilled out. No shopping or outing or anything of that sort - just family time, which also means no photographs. Sridevi akka and me did go to a meeting with a producer from one of the top Telugu movie production houses and it was an interesting meeting.The crux of the meeting was that Telugu cinema is not ready for new stories and only big movies with big name stars sell - even if the story is the same old; and that there is no space for new directors. Hindi cinema has opened up a little and they are more open to new film directors and new stories as they can recoup the costs from screening at multiplexes. Either way forming contacts here would take ages - 6 months and upwards and if you add on the time for getting a movie off the ground it can be anywhere upwards of 2 years before you can even roll the cameras on set. So not an encouraging sign and will have to start thinking on how to raise money from the market here.

We went to see a bollywood movie yesterday evening and the first thing that came to mind was that IMAX was ripping us off in NZ. It costs about NZ$6 to buy an IMAX ticket here while it costs about 3 times that amount in Auckland. And the thing it is no different than the one in Auckland, right down to the seating. Unbelievable isn't it? The movie that we saw was a new release and it was pretty average - all style, not much substance - a masala 'fillum' to the core. I'm definitely not used to the song and dance sequences in movies anymore as they annoy me most of the time they come on as it breaks the flow of the story. If only they moved the story forward or kept the pace going it wouldn't be so big of an issue for me. After watching a couple of hindi movies my impression is that technically they are well made but it is the story and the pacing that they flounder on. In terms of cinematography - most of the movies tend to be shot simply with composed/locked off frames rather than moving image for the most part. It definitely speeds up the shooting rate and probably keeps the costs down. The only place where they go nuts with the camera movement is in the song and dance sequences - to add a dynamic to it obviously.

A noticeable difference in the way movies are now being marketed and sold in India is that the local market is now borrowing heavily from Hollywood style of opening a movie wide and recouping most of the costs within the first 2 weeks. And this is largely due to the fact that Hollywood studios are putting money into Bollywood since the market is huge and they are trying to get a toe hold in the world's largest film producing country. Even 10 years back you would see movie posters boasting that that the movie had completed 100 days or 150 days or 200 days at the cinemas - but not anymore. Now a movie that completes 100 days is a legend. Most of the movies come and go within 3-4 weeks and if it runs beyond that it means that it is super hit. Strange how foreign money has influenced and changed the way indian film industry markets and sells their movies - even though there is not much difference in the product itself.

Reading local newspapers is always interesting. In New Zealand I'd be annoyed that world news wouldn't get as much coverage in print or television and the focus would just be on NZ news but on this trip I realized that it holds true for all countries - the focus is always their own news with foreign news being touched on as an afterthought almost. The only true global TV Channels that I've seen are BBC and CNN as their range of news is worldwide. Reading some of the recent news articles here is worrying to say the least. There are articles like people committing suicide because they are unable to cope with the massive pressure exerted by the system for them to perform according to the system's expectation of them; or that of some farmers using Pepsi mixed with fertilizer to grow a bumper crop at a lower cost as the cost of pesticides is high; or the percieved threat India faces from China in several areas of trade as well as national security; or the increasing internal security threats in the form of naxalites and maoists. It's like the society is reaching a crucial point in time where a major change is bound to happen.

Your best laid plans disappear without a trace in India. I had planned on learning how to cook atleast 4-5 dishes and I had also planned on going to the gym to keep my fitness levels up and also to keep a regulated diet so as not to put on weight. Well the net result of those plans is zilch, nada, nothing. Maybe next time I'll bend the mystical forces at play in India to my will.

It's the last couple of days on this trip with my parents and I'm feeling sad as I feel helpless and useless in doing anything to help solve their worries and their pains. The only thing I can do is take that pain with me to keep reminding myself not to waste the sacrifices they've made ,despite my faults and shortcomings, to get me to the point where I am today.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, Travel

posted by Amit @ 7:41 AM 0 Comments

Hyderabad Again

Last couple of days in Vijayawada were uneventful and basically spent lazing around. There was some last minute shopping on Saturday evening for vegetables, snacks and a set of clothes. The highlight of saturday was the trip to the vegetable market. It was an experience - it was dusty, it was crowdy, it was noisy and it was stinky - a complete sensory overload. Probably not the best place to buy vegetables but they are very cheap there and I guess that's the reason everyone goes there. It has been one of my better Vijayawada trips as I didn't fall sick this time around and i'll miss the hospitality and the family time more than anything else.

The train journey back was not enjoyable again even though the condition of the train was heaps better than the last one. This was because they didn't switch on the AC even though it was an AC compartment. It's very annoying and wish there was some kind of customer complaint service to address that problem. But knowing India - even if there was such a system the complaint book would either be ignored or lost or be tampered with and the problem would still remain.

I much prefer the weather in Hyderabad to Vijayawada as it isn't humid and it is actually easier to breath. Since this morning I've had a trip to a local eating joint to get some breakfast and a trip to the barbers to get my hair shortened. Breakfast is cheap - NZ$0.80 for a dosa {as compared to NZ$8 and upwards for a dosa in Auckland} and it just makes me wonder if I should get into food business back in NZ since there seems to be huge profit margins.

My hair seemed to grow faster this time around and I've had to go for a hair cut within a month as opposed to every 6-7 weeks when in NZ. The barber was again cheap with the trip costing me $2.50 for a hair cut and shave while a hair cut alone costs NZ$15 and upwards in NZ. The experience was interesting though- I've got a massive scar at the back of my head from an operation when I was a kid and my regular barber in Auckland usually takes care to cut the hair in such a way that most of the scar is covered up but here the barber just went all out and trimmed the whole lot so now my massive scar is on wholesome display. :-) And the shave - holy crap - it felt like he shaved my whole face. I am afraid I'll now turn into a werewolf or something when the hair regrows.

Most of my shopping is done and only very small things remain, so the rest of this week is going into socialzing and doing important house work.It's hard to believe that the holidays are coming to an end so soon. I'll try and take more photos in Hyderabad, where my photo tally stands at a grand total of 15.

That's me for now.
Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, Travel, Vijayawada

posted by Amit @ 11:58 AM 0 Comments

The state of things

Yesterday I spent the day with one of my cousins and her family and it was an awesome day. Her and her family have recently shifted from USA to India and it was insightful getting their views on settling back into the Indian society. My cousin has given me a couple of low budget telugu movies that I intend to watch sometime this week to catch up on the local film industry scene. I loved spending time socializing with her and her family and it made me wonder if I should actually spend more time socializing when I am back in New Zealand. Over the past few years I've cut down on my socializing heaps so that I have more time on my hands to focus on movies but that leaves a social void and I guess I need to find a balance between work and social life.

I watched 1 and half bollywood movies over the past couple of days and I enjoyed the one I actually finished completely but didn't really care much for the one I left half way. The one I liked was 'Taare Jamein Par' and I would've loved it if there were no song and dance sequences plus for the better part of the movie the acting was understated. The other movie I tried watching was a remake of an old hindi movie called 'Don' and the new one looked slick but the acting was over the top and there was no cohesiveness to the storytelling and I couldn't really see any point in the remake since there was no unique point of view.

One of the things I've noticed here is that most people tend to go on huge diversions/detours while talking. You'll be having a conversation and mid-sentence the topic would change randomly to something not even closely related and after sometime the conversation would again veer back to the original conversation, somehow. And during the entire period, you are expected to know exactly what everyone is talking about. It can be slightly disorienting and my coping mechanism is that I phase out of the conversation till it comes back to the one I was following. :-) The other thing is people don't like introducing themselves when they call up. They expect you to recognize their voice and again it is very disorienting - especially when you can't recognize their phone numbers. It is fine if it is someone you've been talking to on a regular basis or someone you've talked to recently but calling up after ages and then expecting to just know who you are talking to is rather presumptuous.

Andhra Pradesh is a strange state in the sense that the government is promising unsustainable welfare schemes for the masses like offering rice for Rs.2 a KG {about NZ$0.05 per KG} with a limit of 20 KG's per person - for people living under the poverty line. Mind boggles when you think that at retail the rice goes upwards of Rs.25 per KG in India and in New Zealand - it is more like NZ$2-NZ$3 a KG. The price differential is borne by the state government and the burden of which ultimately falls on the middle class - which gets taxed more to cover the financial shortfalls. As it is there is global food scarcity and with populist and unsustainable schemes like this you have to wonder how much lower can the politicians scoop to stay in power.

A different aspect of the state is that the work ethic in general is poorer than other Indian states - people like to make a quick buck and don't even want to work for it. Hyderabad boasts of major multi-national software firms having their offices in the city but that does nothing to change the imbalance of work culture leaning towards inaction. Once you scratch the surface there are so many things you see that you don't like and in general the Indian intelligentsia doesn't like those faults either but the system is too big and too flawed for anyone to even try and fix it. Small steps can change the course of things but I am not sure if that'll ever happen in India - even in a global economy as the balance of trade is shifting towards emerging markets like China and India where whoever enters the market gets assimilated into the local way of thinking and functioning in order to make profits.

I might be sounding negative about the way things are in India - I am not - I am perplexed, surprised and at times outraged at the state of things but this is not my fight. Sometimes I wonder if New Zealand had a similar population explosion and scarcity of resources would people be the same as people are here in India - good natured despite all their flaws or would we see an uglier face of humanity? I wonder.

Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, Travel

posted by Amit @ 7:16 PM 0 Comments

Unaccustomed Earth

Shaving can be such a hard task when the spordaic bursting of crackers and fireworks - far and close by, startles you. Thankfully I didn't cut myself. I finally had a chance to catch up on some reading that I'd been putting off for a while because of time constraints I always run into and the book I started reading is 'Unaccustomed Earth' by Jhumpa Lahiri even though mum handed me a book called 'The 3 mistakes of my life' by Chetan Bhagat. My first thought on seeing the title of that book was 'oh, not a self-help book I hope' and when I read the prologue it turned out to be fiction. The prologue of the book was interesting but after reading the first chapter I skipped right through to the epilogue since I didn't like the author's writing style. And I managed to figure out everything that happened in the story by reading the epilogue, so I guess that's one book done with. :-)

Having finished off '3 mistakes' I started 'Unaccustomed earth' and the difference between the 2 books is night and day. The prose in 'unaccustomed' is poetic and it is hard to put down the book because each of the short stories manages to connect with a different part of you so empathatically. I finished half the book since yesterday and the book really got me thinking. Jhumpa Lahiri's stories deal with expatriate Indians who have settled in USA and their lives and struggles and thoughts and joys but the thing that differentiates her stories from similar topics is that the characters she creates are very human. There is no effort by the author to preach what's right or wrong or the way things should be instead she explores the human condition in all it's glory and fallings. Even though the stories deal with expatriate Indians - it could be replaced by any race, ethnicity, person that has settled in a new country - that's how universal the condition of the human stories within the book are.

The thought process it started off in me was leaving me wondering if I was a coward running away from responsibilities and family duties here in India in the name of ambition, progress and sanity. I am my parent's only child and to settle in a country that's a convenient 21 odd hours flight away {if you count the stop-over since there are no direct flights as yet} seems a little too extreme. In Indian culture, kids always take care of their parents - especially when they are older just as the parents take care of their kids till they are able to stand on their own 2 feet while in most of the western cultures, kids are happy to escape the constant gaze and protection of their parents as soon as they can {and I think parents over there prefer that} and then there is no obligation for the kids to look after their parents when they are older. Both the systems have their flaws and advantages but the point I am trying to make is that I am my parent's only support especially now as they are getting older and I feel helpless as I am not earning bucketloads of money {which is one of the primary reasons people move to a different country} to support them financially and if I come over to India to support them emotionally and physically then I can't support anyone - not even myself, in any meaningful financial way since the work ethic and culture in India is not something that pays good money to good workers. And I probably won't survive the haphazard and hazardous way of working over in India - i'll probably go insane pretty quick which means that I won't be of much help to anyone.


I've always belonged to 2 worlds - when I was in India I belonged to North India and South India while now that I am in New Zealand I belong to both New Zealand and India. And being of 2 worlds always throws up so many questions and dilemas as evidenced by the conflict I am having right now. I hate thinking about the future because it is so uncertain and out of one's hands but I guess I do need to acknowledge certain facts of life and start taking them into account while planning for things.

More immediate concern of mine is making sure that my throat comes right. I had some indian snacks from the corner stall on the road couple of days back and the oil obviously didn't suit me because my throat seized up as soon as I ate the snacks. It has been a constant case of sucking on 'strepsils' and lots of hot salt water gargling. Hopefully it'll come right within a day or so. I went to get some milk from the grocery shop across the road and then to get some sweets since it's festival time and I must say it is an interesting experience because it is just chaos. Everyone is out festival shopping and no one wants to wait and everyone wants to be served first, so you have to forget all niceties and push people around a bit to get served at all. I don't like it one bit and the thing is that if there is some sembelance of order people will get served faster and there wouldn't be as much tension shopping but I guess this is the way of life in India and people like it that way. Besides the throat seizing up - my nose is dripping because of the amount of air pollution generated by people burning fireworks on the occasion of Diwali.


I don't like the commercial form of diwali where everyone is out buying and burning crackers. Andhra Pradesh has been hit by floods recently and certain districts are still coping with the loss but over in cities a good majority doesn't seem to acknowledge that. If people donated even half of what they spent on fireworks for flood relief it would alleviate the sufferings of the flood ravaged considerably but who am I to speak about such things. The thing I do enjoy about Diwali is the family get together part of things. We went to a family friend's house for dinner {it is hard to explain relationships in English, so easier to just categorize some relations as either relatives or family friends} and it was a nice evening especially since it was the first time I celebrated the festival with my family and friends in 7 years. The best part was seeing the kids enjoy the fireworks and the meal after wards but the pollution still really bothers me.


On a parting note - I learnt 2 interesting things about myself today:
a) I compartmentalize my past and then leave it behind and don't really rack up the past in order to live in the present {my point of view: I learn from my past and then I do tend to leave the incidents and stuff behind as it helps free up my my small brain in dealing with the present}
b) I have slowed down from what I was like as a person a few years back - apparently I was super-ambitious and would follow on my impulses without paying proper thought but now it seems that I am not as ambitious and have this demeanor of acceptance of whatever life is throwing at me {my point of view - I am still as ambitious as before but I do take a more measured approach to any challenge/opportunity - maybe because I'm tired of constant rejections and heart aches when I leap blindly without looking}.

Thats me for now.
Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, Travel

posted by Amit @ 11:23 PM 0 Comments

Bigg Boss

I watched 10 minutes of a reality TV show called 'Bigg Boss' and that was enough to have me in splits. It is basically an Indianized version of 'Big Brother' and it is hilarious {I am sure that wasn't the intent of the makers}. It is bland and boring to say the least because nothing happens and it is mind numbingly mundane. I skipped channels and landed on a hindi soap and it was a different kind of experience. Indian TV acting does veer towards being over-dramatic and unreal and it is painful to watch.I don't know why but here everyone does like the acting to be pretty over the top otherwise it doesn't register. I haven't seen any hindi movies or telugu movies yet and plan to do so over the next couple of weeks to form an opinion on the state of acting in film. There are some fantastic actors over here but some of their best work has been their understated performances and I wanna see if there are naturalistic performances on the big screen or if they follow closely in the footsteps of television acting.

Overall the best thing of TV media in India is that the market is HUGE and the number of channels available on the tele are mind-boggling and the cost of having that many channels is pretty cheap as well compared to what we pay in New Zealad. The same applies to the cost of telecommunication in India - it is cheaper than you can imagine and I seriously think that we are getting ripped off big time by the telecom companies over in NZ.

In the evening I went roaming around the local market trying to find a recharge point for mum's cellphone and I accidentally found a gym while at it. It is close to the house and it is a pretty basic gym with focus on weights/strength training but it is again cheap and serves the stop-gap purpose of trying to maintain some level of fitness during the holiday. I'll be joining the gym from next week once Diwali festival is over and done with. Needless to say I can't describe how happy I really am that I won't be totally slouch during the break.

It's been a week already since I've been home and man time does fly really fast. It is scary.

That's me for now,
Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, India, Travel

posted by Amit @ 6:32 AM 0 Comments

Door Bang

Hyderabad is nice and hot during the day and it is nice during the evening. I walked around in peak sun for a couple of hours today, doing some shopping, and I have gone 4 shades darker, atleast. The pollution is pretty bad and the roads are definitely not pedestrian friendly. Food is still super awesome and I am loving it.

I gave up the idea of going to a gym while I am here as the nearest one I could find was a couple of KM's away and that too on a traffic heavy road. Not worth it was my first thought when I finally tracked down the gym. I did run around on the roads plus I found a decent sized park, so I did that for a couple of days but had to take a 2 day break from it as I managed to strain my knee as running on the streets puts massive pressure on your knees since you don't have any cushion for the impact. Only small success over the past couple of days has been that I finally got a new computer chair and a wireless keyboard/mouse to make it easier to work online.

I acted in a short film before I started off this trip and you can see me getting tortured here: http://www.gorilla-tv.com/node/289

That's me for now.
Amit

Labels: Acting, Hyderabad, Travel

posted by Amit @ 5:34 AM 0 Comments

Hyderabad

I have been Hyderabad for 3 days now and I've still had no success in finding a gym anywhere close by. I used google maps to search for some gyms and I spent the last couple of days in a pointless exercise in trying to find them and it was only today that I figured out that the map was wrong altogether once I had a look at the map on bing - which is not as detailed as google maps but atleast it shows the correct location of places {shame on you google maps}. Why do I need to join a gym? Well the food here is awesome and I don't want to pack on a few kilos before I come back - that would be detrimental to my fitness goals plus it gives something physical to do in an otherwise sedentary holiday at home. Since I had no luck finding a gym I woke up this morning and went for a 30 minute run on the road - which is not something I like as it puts a lot of pressure on knees, but it is better than doing nothing I suppose. Now that I have the correct location for a couple of gyms close by I might check them out tomorrow and see what the go is.

Mum's home made food is delicious and I just can't get enough of it - even though I am regulating my diet. The plan is to learn how to cook atleast 4-5 dishes before the holiday ends. Since I've been here the only thing I have crossed off my 'to do' list is a visit to the dentist. I had my teeth cleaned and also getting that empty gap at the back of my right jaw sorted, which will take a couple of sittings this coming week but I am happy about it because the whole thing is saving me a bundle. To give you an idea, if I had this done in NZ - this whole thing would cost me NZ$3000 atleast while here I'll only be spending around NZ$180 and the dentist I am getting this done from is one of the best.

One of the things about living in India is that power cuts, water shortages, pollution, very high cost of apartments, shortage of domestic help {which is a common practise throughout India} is a way of life and people adjust to it pretty well; though I wish that mum can find a proper domestic help sooner rather than later. In my parents place there is a daily power cut for 1 hour a day and also fresh water comes through only every alternate day {so they store water for use on the day it doesn't come through}. For some reason I haven't taken any pics while I've been here and I'll try and take some but as I said it is a strange feeling acting like a tourist in a place you originally are from.

Today,dad took mum and me out {since I can't even dream of driving in the traffic here anymore} furniture shopping as I have been pestering both of them to get a dining table and also a new computer chair and table {as the old one is such a pain in the neck - literally}. Furniture shopping wasn't really successful as there was nothing good in the shop we stopped by, so the next stop was Salarjung Museum. The museum is amazing since all the collections there belongs to one man and the length and breadth of collection is mind numbing. To see so much history in one place, some of which is several centuries old is humbling. It is definitely worth a visit if you are in Hyderabad. The only thing that annoyed me at that place is that photography is not permitted even though it is a tourist attraction.

Crossing a road or an intersection here - whether you are driving or on foot, is a little bit more than strenous than normal. The easiest way to describe it is to compare it to the massive herds of wilde beest on their annual migrations, trying to cross the crocodile infested river from one place. It is a little like that - no one stops for anyone and if you are a pedestrian, you are on the lowest end of the food chain, so you have an even harder time. Indian roads are not a pedestrian friendly place at all.

I have my work cut out for the next couple of days - find that damn gym which is supposed to be relatively close to the house and also check out a few furniture places that I got addresses off from the internet. The thing I am loving about Hyderabad is that it is not humid at all - even though it is hot, which means that you are not sweating like a pig.

There is a lot of talk about me and my marriage and have to see how things pan out over the next few weeks.

That's me for now.
Amit

Labels: Hyderabad, India, Travel

posted by Amit @ 5:39 AM 1 Comments