Quick Update : Hyderabadi Happenings

Disclaimer : Blog has been catching up with hits from many places.. also heard that there was a discussion around this in sunday's party in US.. got 50 unique hits on this day itself. Remember, these are just my ramblings and are my personal opinions, they in no way reflect the feelings of my employer or any one I am associated with... Had to do this to Cover My A**.. Also please ignore grammar and spelling.. since I am trying to dump my mind here without spending too much time..

Past weekend was the last chance for good muhurat's before the 3 to 4 month "soonya masam". Looks like there are no auspicious times till february and tv9 reported that there were 900+ marriages and 1000+ gruha pravesha's happening between 17 and 19th of August. I moved into my new rental house, It was fun to have the family around and everyone taking the interest in making the best of the occassion. Since this was at 3am I didnt invite anyone except my immediate family and pooja was done in a more serious fashion than what I was used to in the US... .

My container has not arrived yet in India. Visited the shipping agent and provided him the list of items with values attached to it along with copies of passport etc., and the expected date is around the 28th. So, until then I will be living in an empty house with the basic furnishings.

Saturday was fun filled with a dinner party @ an ISB Alumni house . Met the families of some old friends and we had fun enjoying the real hyderabadi delicacies along with the combination of chai+samosa[the real triangular kind .. not the aloo filled blobs we get in the US ].

At the end of the day I had to visit an injured team member. He was very critically injured when a passing mini bus hit him while crossing the road. Road accidents in hyderabad are so horrible that bike rides are no longer fun. There are atleast 3 to 5 bike related deaths reported in the paper everyday including lorries that have climbed over the bikes etc. He is still in critical condition, but the emergency response was very fast. May be since he was in the hitec area, the ambulance got him to the hospital in less than 15 mins and got him admitted for an emergency procedure. HR and Legal teams of my organization also reacted quickly to arrange for everything and I was really happy to see the emergency plans they have in place.

Sunday brought along visits to some interesting Real Estate ventures including the coveted medchal area. Geez.. if I have to pay the high rates so far away from hyderabad, I might as well come back to US and buy an acre on some of the lake communities. Land seems to be a bigger hype in the medchal and surrounding areas. Who knows, may be the next batch of suckers will double it for the next year.. herd mentality fuels the bubbles.. and the standard statement that everyone uses is "Land will never loose value.."

Sunday evening, we went for a party of the elite real-estate hyderabad crowd. I was not on the invitee list, but I accompanied a friend of mine. It was a pleasant surprise to see such big wigs and politicians not showing any arrogance .. and really they were down to earth.. I have to plead guilty for asking one of the big realestate guys where he thought the market was headed.. and his answer was "Its going to stagnate soon.. but who knows who will come along next and drive this further"... Drinks and Appetizers at the table, followed by a dinner buffet.. Food was excellent, followed by an awesome dessert bar.. you can guess where I spent most of my time..

Visited TMC to check out appliances, anything you get in US is available here too but at a small premium. The advantage is that you get full service and support. Word .. "Service" should be taken with a grain of salt, since its a pain to get anything done. ICICI pissed me off after making me go round and round.. I will cover the story in another posting.. went to HDFC and I was out in 10 mins with my work done.

Ordered cable based Internet from Beam and a Fixed Wireless line from Tata Indicom. The thing I am starting to get sick of is the concept of the marketing executive. Even if I call a company saying I need xyz.. they want to send a marketing person that comes and tries to sell the same thing that you are asking for. In both cases, I cut off the sales pitch and told them I am not willing to hear anything.. here is what I want.

Enough for now.. time to get to work..