Hyderabad Blues

After spending the last few years of my predominantly uneventful life, travelling in different cities, the "blues" article has become a regular feature of my blogs. Its nice to dissect and discern the different cities that I travel to and gain an insight into, not only the city but my perception of my surroundings there.
Six of us disembarked the Satyam train, alongwith a host of fellow Satyamites, all of us temporary migrants to the Telugu town of Hyderabad. Unsure of a halt by the train we had started hauling out our luggage on the platform long before it stopped. Consequently by the time all of us disembarked, our luggage adorned half the length of the Begumpet platform. And that was the beginning.
Its been exactly one month and eight days and two invaluable kilos of body mass in Hyderabad and each day has been a day of celebration. Celebrating our successes, our failures, celebrating the loss of a roof over our heads, celebrating the loss of a companion, celebrating our new homes and our new friends, celebrating a journey so topsy turvy that we smile through our tears.
Hyderabad is a city that owes a lot to its administrators and unlike Mumbai its for all the good that they have done for the city. A very well developed and even better maintained city with inhabitants who possess the laidback attitude of a small city and the cosmopolitan culture of a big one. This optimism also stems from the fact that my last sojourn was Mumbai during monsoon.
Summarising, I luv the place and the city and am looking forward to moving out of its hospitals which have become my favourite weekend hangouts to exploring it in its entirety.

Life is Beautiful

If there is one thing that a pure born and bred Gujarati relishes more than his fafda, jalebis, undhiyu and reliance shares combined, its the festival of Uttarayan. And for all of us here in Hyderabad, saying that being away from our roots on this day was a traumatic experience is putting it mildly. As the reinvented saying goes "You can take a Gujarati out of Gujarat but not Gujarat out of a Gujarati".
So yesterday all of us from Gujarat got together and celebrated Uttarayan at a friend's place. After a lot of noise and very few kite flying experiences we settled down for lunch and some for a much sought after post lunch siesta. After that we visited snow world.
The city of Hyderabad is built around the magnificent Hussain Sagar lake. The very well developed and maintained lakeside attracts hordes of locals and tourists on most days and more so on holidays. Snow world is another tourist attraction akin to a huge refrigerator where sub zero degree temperatures are maintained alongside the production of loads of snow and games which add to the fun. And fun was what the thirty two of us had in loads. Hitting each other with ice balls, going down the slopes of and dancing in the ice to the tunes of Kajra re.
Reminiscing back home wid sore backs and behinds, we were tired but satiated. Life presently is beautiful. Loads of fun, friends and masti. Movies and out bounds and eating out every day. Life is picture perfect. Am looking forward to becoming fitter and travelling around Hyderabad and making new friends and doing more of reading, writing and photography. Am not a sceptic and yet have failed to unravel the order amidst this chaos. Am living life in the moment. And enjoying it. But the big picture irks me nonetheless. How long without a purpose, without a want, a burning desire for success? Or should it be how long till I change my parameters for success?

Let Go

Let go, Let it flow,run, have fun;
Let go your heart
Let it fear the dark
Let it love the lark
Let it free.
Sate the satan of your soul
Feed the flames of your desires
Plunge down the precipice
Create a world of your own device
Forget the musts, indulge the wills;
Feel the rush of the wind
Feel the ground beneath your feet
Feel the Freedom to feel.