Alvida Hyderabad

It was 14^th June 2004, Nizammudin station. We were waiting for the Rajdhani express to come. We were going or should I say coming to Hyderabad.

June 15^th, Secunderabad Station, it must have been around 7 in the evening when our train reached there.Shekhar, Manish, Pamma and I, none of us had visited Hyderabad earlier. Thanks to Shekhar that we didn’t have to search for an accommodation as he had some acquaintance in army who had arranged a guest house for us. The guys were there to receive us at the railways station. While we sat in the “Maruti Omni “and were heading towards the army guest house, we were looking at the city curiously and the those big glowing signboards were silently saying us “Welcome to Hyderabad”

Today

Date 25^th October 2006

Time 8:15 PM

Sitting in the office while listening to “Beedi” song from movie “Omkara” I am feeling a strange kind of heart ache as now I am about say good bye to Hyderabad. By the way did I Tell you what brought me to Hyderabad and what is taking me back to Punjab?

I had to Join Satyam Computer Services (my first job) here in Hyderabad and now I am about to join Infosys at Chandigarh.

So now where do I start from narrating my stint here at Hyderabad?

Okay let me start again from the very initial days here. When we had arrived here the monsoons were just in so the weather was really enjoyable. I liked the city.

Then as the stay at army guest house was coming to an end the hunt for house started and believe me it is not easy here if u want to save and don’t go to a broker. So we had some 4-5 classifieds papers with us searching like mad. Then Shekhar came up with an advertisement of a PG and he was quite sure that it was the place where we were going to put up and the same thing happened. We met the Gopal (Owner) of the PG and 2600 bucks sounded quite reasonable to us. So here we were, staying at Tarbund.

Telling that Punjabis come to a place in South India and don’t have a fight with an “autowala” would be an oxymoron and we were no exception. We had this notion in mind that in every cosmopolitan city the auto and taxi walas are all crooks but let me clear it that at least in Hyderabad most of them are not. So coming back to our tryst with the “autowallas.”We were going from some place(don’t remember eggjectly) to May fair center in begumpet and in between somewhere we felt that the guy is taking us wrong way and just roaming around to make a bigger bill in meter. So we made him stop there forcefully and then started the real scene. We were abusing him in Punjabi and he was abusing (I guess so) in telugu.The people came in and the whole matter was settled and we are still not very sure that whether he was right or wrongJ.

The Initial training days used to be loadza fun. Café Coffee day used to be our “adda” the guys there had started recognizing us and played Punjabi songs when were there.

If I talk about about Hyderabad and don’t mention the typical hyderabadi hindi then definitely some hyderabadi will come to me and say”Kya Bhiya…kya kare tumin, Hyderabad ke bare mein likh rae kate,aur hyderabdi ke bare mein eech nihin likhe”

Seriously this hyderabadi dialect is too mast.

A foodie like me would surely like to mention about the “Hyderabadi biryani”.There is nothing like a full cup of “double ka meetha” after a large “hyderbadi biryani” with “mirchi ka salan” and “rayta”.I bet the “Irani chai” in the old city can put Baristas and CCD’s to shame and how could I forget my favorite “rava dosa” with extra coconut chutney and the spicy Rasam idly.

There are loadza things to talk about Hyderabad but I guess I will keep rest of the things to myself.

I will definitely cherish the time I spent here at Hyderabad, I Love you Hyderabad for all that you have given me

I will miss you