Hyderabad blogs

I wanted to some serious blog reading today. So I opened Google Blog Search and punched in Hyderabad (that’s where I live right now!). Instead of blogs what I came up with..?

Ads – about free air tickets from Hyderabad to else where on this planet, about a 160 sq. yard Independent house in Gautam nagar Upparpalli, about free medical transcription training, about Wipro and GM walk-in, about openings at Prof. G.M. Reddy Research and SAP consultants at Wipro..

Jee… doesn’t Hyderabad host any bloggers.. there sure must be lots of them but doesn’t the city of Hyderabad interest them? Finally the face saver was Hyderabad Photo Blog .

It declares itself a blog about the “Life in Hyderabad – not the stuff you’d see in Tourism Corporation’s brochures and websites.  “. Its a tongue n cheek description of how life stutters in Hyderabad – in its filthy-dying streets, in its crammed markets, overloaded roads and unbuilt flyovers, in the banner spammed skyline and the dust n pollution. It captures the street life and many more things that might miss the inattentive eye. Nice blog man.. m linking to you :)

The HITEC city

Hyderabad is overly proud of the swanky HITEC city – (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy) aka Cyberabad. This place houses offices to some of the software powerhouses like MS, ORACLE, GOOGLE – Indian Giants like TCS, Wipro,Infosys and Satyam besides numerous other BPOs, KPOs ,LPOs and God knows what 

Every other person here worth his/her own salt (except perhaps the auto-cab drivers , street vendors and the naked child beggars who cajole you for money once you stop at a red signal) has a ID card here. Having an ID card gives you special rights – it will get your work done at a bank, you don’t have to wait at queues for long(unless you are really dumb!), you have access to places. People look down on you if you don’t possess one.

A friend remarked once, “The HITEC city has been sold ( to IT companies) in the name of the Cyber Tower.”

Chandrababu Naidu the IT-savvy former CM of AP salted the HITEC mines to the firangs. The Cyber Tower stands tall in the bosom of HITEC city – its a crowded place at the intersection of busy roads. The traffic is slow as usual – at peak hours lines upto 2-3 kms are not uncommon! This problem is compounded by the utter lack of traffic sense among people. Cutting lanes , jumping signals and tripping is very common (more about HYD traffic later in other post).

Traffic blues

I had promised to write about the notorious Hyderabad traffic so folks here I am, right on my money :) 

The worst thing about Hyderabad traffic is that there are no rules. People assume, as they are entitled to in a democra(z)cy, the highest authority on themselves. In this process they forget the hapless traffic constable ,who has been shouting his guts off in the crazy heat or the hapless commuters (the god fearing type) who just happen to be in the wrong place (they always do, don’t they?). The end result is a mob frenzy with a free for all kind of traffic.

They jump signals at the smallest excuse, break queues,cut lanes, and indulge in all kind of nuisance you possibly can imagine. You would consider it to be your lucky day if you can cross the road without getting hurt – those sadists :(

Someone posted the following video on YouTube showing a glimpse of the Hyderabad traffic:

You can really see for yourselves how crazy the people are! Sometimes I feel people get what they deserve and Hyderabadis have nobody but themselves to blame for the chaos they allow themselves to be in. A sad commentary indeed for a place that prouds itself on being the Cyber capital  :(

Hyderabadi Biryani

I had great hopes on Hyderabad and its cuisines most notably the Biryani. Wherever in India you may happen to reside, you can never be too far away from the Biryani. Be it an upmarket mall in NCR, or the Khomcha dishing out street food in Rampur – Biryani always sells like Hotdogs.

I had tasted Biryani numerous times at many non-descript restaurants/food stalls. So while moving to Hyderabad one of the foremost thoughts in my mind had been to feast myself to the quintessential “Hyderabadi” Biryani. The one that symbolizes Hyderabad in many ways as in this song from the movie “The Angrez”.

And with such great hopes in my heart and hunger in my belly that I set out for Hyderabad House – a place that prides itself on being the harbinger of Hyderabadi food. After a while arrived my Veg-Biryani dressed on a tray with hot steam piping out. This really got my juices flowing – quite literally! Without wasting any more seconds I broke into it.

First few morsels were taken quite liberally but then it started sinking in – it wasn’t too great. In fact it came down to swallowing the stuff and a couple of minutes later even that looked distant. Thanks to the buttermilk I could gulp some more. Too bad – there were no vegetables to save the day.

Not to blame the restaurant, the rice was of good quality and there were lots of spices in it. With every morsel I took I said to myself,”Oh, they put caradamom in it and there’s elaichi too and tejpatta and God forbid what not!”. But in the end it was plain colored rice – that’s what it was.

As I glanced away I saw a man biting into something that looked like a non-veg Biryani. And man was he really enjoying it ! You can tell when someone is really enjoying his meal, you know what I mean. He might have been very hungry or something but he looked lost into it – just like me but for entirely different reasons altogether. Two men looked out of the window one looked at the sky and other at the mud – is something how it`goes like.

May be my being a vegetarian took the kick out of it but whatever if can’t enjoy it there must be something wrong. The feeling was as if you had come to watch a movie by virtue of it having received great reviews but you felt it was entirely crap.

As I walked out, the restaurant owner looked up to me smiling like a Cheshire cat. Unfortunately I had no kind words for the Biryani but I smiled back in recognition anyway in case his faith in humanity might be hurt.

Don't go Gilly!

Arguably the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the history of the game – Adam Gilchrist announced his retirement from all forms of cricket during the final test match in the ongoing test series between Australia & India. He had been under a bit of pressure from media under recent times with a barrage of dropped catches and missed stumpings. But his decision stunned us all. Just a couple of days back he said he wanted to play for one more year. What really happened is a mystery – Gilchrist has not spoken on it. He intends to do so after the finish of the ongoing match.

Victim of his own standards?

He has been a victim of his own high standards. And as former Australian player Ian Healy said, “You’re only judged on your mistakes. He could have a perfect game and catch everything that comes his way, and everyone says, ‘You’re expected to do that’. He’s got to somehow take some speccy catches so that people notice him in a positive sense – so it’s a hard thing to do.“

Instinctive & non-traditional player

There have been and will be batsman who plunder runs and bowlers who take wickets but what makes Adam Gilchrist different from many others who play cricket is the fact that he changed the way game is played. He has redefined the role of a wicketkeeper-batsman with his swashbuckling style and candor. Players like Gilchrist, Jayasuriya, Crowe, Viv Richards, Slater (and Sehwag if I may add) have defied tradition to set new benchmarks. People like him have made the game of cricket more richer (and popular) than ever.

Gilchrist has always been a instinctive player as opposite to being a thoughtful one like maybe Healy. But it is his audacity with the bat and clean work behind the stumps that made him so popular. He was a walker and famously walked in the semifinals of the WC 2003 against SriLanka even after being given not out.

As a tribute to this fantastic cricketer and a very fine human being below is an excerpt from his book WALKING TO VICTORY where he describes his emotions on that particular day:

“I was going well on 22 off 19 balls, seeing it like a football, when he (Aravinda D’Silva) came in for the second ball of his first over. He pitched it up and I went for an aggressive sweep, trying to hit it behind square leg. I got a thick, loud bottom edge. It bounced off my pad and I had no idea where it went.

“Catch it! Catch it!” I heard. I stood and turned to see that [Kumar] Sangakkara had it. I knew I was done. It was so obvious.

Then, to see the umpire shaking his head, meaning, “Not out”, gave me the strangest feeling. I don’t recall what my exact thoughts were, but somewhere in the back of my mind, all that history from the Ashes series was swirling around. Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain and other batsmen, both in my team and against us, who had stood their ground in those “close” catching incidents were definitely a factor in what happened in the following seconds. I had spent all summer wondering if it was possible to take ownership of these incidents and still be successful. I had wondered what I would do. I was about to find out.

The voice in my head was emphatic.

Go.

Walk.

And I did.

It was a really weird sensation to go against the grain of what 99 per cent of cricketers do these days, and what we’ve been doing for our whole careers. I was annoyed because I felt like I was batting well and had the chance to lay the foundation for a big team score – and it was me taking that away from myself.”

Go on Gilly, may you have a great life ahead with your family. We’ll miss you!

Image Credits: Wikipedia