Dusshera, Diwali, Ramadan.. Party Time !!!

Dusshera and Diwali are now fully commercialized in Hyderabad .. Just 1 week before dusshera, special offers on everything from appliances to groceries to clothes have been relesed. I have seen advertisements for special offers on purchase of groceries too.. We are fully hooked into the western sale culture here..

With Dusshera, Ramadan and Diwali around the corner, companies are organizing many [ or should I say too many..] parties to let their employees have fun during this time. Many companies have planned major concerts, parties etc., for diwali and the element of surprise and the boasting rights go to the one with the coolest/hippest/biggest rock/other band performing at their party. For Dusshera dandia is in full swing along with dance competitions, informal and formal parties, along with a medley of sweet and savoury offerings on every floor.

I had the honor of judging a dance competition, and I was amazed at the energy and the enthu displayed by the young members of the teams. Most participation is from the new kids out of college under the direction of their senior members and these activities work as the best team building excercises. Competition was at a business-unit level and the cheering squads were in full force with their customized cheers etc. Did I mention that there was also a cheering award and it went to the loudest team [ not much has changed with the hyderabadi culture of enjoying things to the fullest along with the rowdiness of the crowd... poor MC was having a tough time controlling them ... I hope you all remember the cheers from college days in hyderabad...things like jeete ga bhai jeetega.. ; vittala vittala..; and so on and so on.... ].

I am a pain to deal with, when it comes to appreciating art or dance, but this one was really cool.. nothing traditional, nothing too exotic or western, it was a medley of everything with beats that I never expected could be integrated so well. Each team had 6 different song and dance mix with custom music mixes integrated as one show. Makeup, Music, Crowd everything made it worthwhile and I promised myself that I am never gonna miss these events in the future. The networking and socializing opportunities at these gatherings are endless. The competition was followed by dandia night, and after guzzling some extra calories through sweets, hyderabadi samosa's and sweet lassi etc., we headed down for a nicotine fix.

Other Updates :

Last week we had a party at Touch, to celebrate some wins/growth of the organization. Party started 1 hour late but quickly gained momemtum. I need to get better at this time sense thing in India.. if the invite is for 7:00 .. dont even think of going there until 7:45 - 8:00. Touch had great ambience, simple interiors that give you a feel of an wide open space but at the same time providing the space to relax and connect with the party goers. Excellent Drink offerings and Staff, but food was average [ may be it has something to do with the menu picked by our event organizer ] .. Dessert Bar as always was my favourite.. I am not sure what I ate, but I had multiple servings.. Drinks, DJ and Music made up for the zing missing on in the food buffet.


Another team of mine had their quarterly bash at Runway-9 or something like that, I couldnt make it due to a customer meeting, but will update you the next time I am there.


Haleem is the speciality of this season in Hyderabad. Yesterday I was reading that Hyderabadi Haleem is now being exported to the Mid East and is a crowd favourite in most restaurants there. To enjoy/expose this delicacy of Hyderabad to my team, I am organizing a haleem party at Pista House near Hitec City.. [ depending on # of confirmed attendees, we may either go there or have them deliver it to our break area] this restaurant is supposed to be one of the best ones for haleem in Hyderabad and also has an outlet closer to the Hitec city area. We are heading there in 2 weeks .. and will update you soon about that.

Next week I am headed to a southern state for an offsite workout/gathering of leadership teams and may not be updating the blog... Until then...
Happy Birthday T and Happy Dusshera to all of you

2 Months since My Arrival

Its exactly 2 months since I arrived in hyderabad... No regrets, no challenges to deal with, enjoyed every bit of my stay here... bottomless biryani buffets... litres of teachers and blenderspride scotch [ may be thats a little exaggerated ;-) ] and the ability to re-live in a fun culture of dakhani [ hyderabadi ] phrases including my favourites "maakki kiri kiri" and "bindaas". Today I really laughed when a team member said "pareshan mat lena sir....", to calm me down about an issue....

In the last 60 days, I was able to complete the basic tasks like renting a house in hyderabad, move in, get connected, hire a maid+driver and move my family here. Couple of things I am really behind on are my son's school, drive on my own [ need to figure out how to get a license and insurance ], physical fitness / gym and a pet project I started while I was in the US. I hope to get on track by the 100th day or so..

With the global nature of the business that Indians deal with, work hours are not well defined. The higher you climb the ladder, the worse it gets.. though not a daily activitiy, you are expected to participate in calls, reviews etc., with australiam/APAC customers in the morning, Europeans in the afternoon and America's in the evenings. So a workday of mine goes from 11am to 7pm on some days to 2pm to 10pm on somedays. The best part is that you get to slack off on both Indian as well as Customer Holidays ;-). Companies have adapted well to this global demands with extensive work from home options, including wireless internet, vpn, blackberries/other devices that are tied into the company phone networks so that you have a virtual office extension that comes with you all the time.

Some of you asked me about lunch etc.. so here it goes. Cafeteria's at work are very well maintained / managed in many of the large companies. Food goes from the traditional thali between Rs 25 to 50 depending on the options along with traditional offerings like biryani, curry+paratha etc. at less than Rs 50 for a large serving. Cafeterias also have free coffee/nescafe/tea machines along with a coffeeday express or similar store that offers gourmet coffee between Rs 10 to 30 depending on your choice. Other standard things include a bakery counter where you can buy puffs, rolls, breads, sandwiches between Rs 5 to Rs 20, and a fruit bar that offers a medley of fresh fruits from Rs 10 to Rs 20 based on the size of serving. In some locations of our organization, food is free for the basic thali type and you pay extra for others. In some organizations like google, its all free including the gourmet varieties of everything and anything.

More later...

Broadband, Sundae, Real Estate, Telephones, Banking : An Update from Hyderabad

Beam Broadband : I ordered this service atmost 4 weeks ago and am yet to see any movement on this. The company called me a couple of times to schedule installation and never showed up. Hope they will show up some day and now that I have my primary broadband through sify, I am not too worried about them.

Sify Broadband : This is my primary provider now and the service has been excellent so far. Had 2 issues and 1 issue was fixed within 30 mins. The 2nd issue was related to bad weather and looks like a tree fell and severed the fiber connectivity to our neighborhood. This took them almost 18 hours to fix and my vonage service was down during this time. The best part is that SIFY people were courteous enough to call me and update me about the progress and when the service was up.

Network Services : Vonage works well on SIFY if the internet is up, VPN, remote desktoping to US from india are working very well. while there is some lag from home, its no different than remote desktop from the office facilities in Hyderabad.

Sundae/Desserts : Based on my previous story about Ohri's Hyderabad and its sundae's, my wife tried the awful awful sundae as a Lunch Replacement.. dont ask me that story ;-).. She says its "awesome".. so, go try it and email me your feedback. We also tried various others with names like lovers paradise, tall lady and lewinsky... this has now turned into a regular session to unwind after a busy day of work.

Telephones : Though the providers have matured over the last couple of years, they still keep adding subscribers without additional capacity. One other challenge you will face is that the roaming agreements are not that good so, you may loose connectivity when you are far away from the city.

Banking : ICICI bank account is fully operational after a long struggle to prove my address, and I am happy with the netbanking services they provide. Even bill pay, trading and other services are available along with SMS notifications for account activities like checks/withdrawals etc. I applied for a Demat+Trading account and waiting for that to be activated. These services require tons of paperwork and have extensive beauracracy tied to them. Banking institutions tried the mcdonald's "dumb it down " principle .. so, no one wants to think beyond the box.. an live example was a friend of mine who tried to cash 2 checks at ICICI. The teller asked him to get 2 separate tokens to cash these checks. The first token flashed on counter #X, and his second token flashed on counter #Y within 30 seconds of the first... He is yet to figure out a way to use 2 counters at once... This is normally how the indian companies deal with operations and customer service..

When i run into folks like Beam Cable Installer, ICICI bank and the many other service providers that never keep their word and ask for wierd documentation..., I remind myself that I have come here with very low expectations ... and that helps me stay cool.... I see the issues, laugh and move on.. Life has been entertaining and relaxed in Hyderabad so far.

Appliance Shopping in Hyderabad : Mr. R to my rescue

We embarked on shopping for the kitchen and other appliances that I was badly waiting to acquire including the Split A/C's needed for my house.

Appliances : All models of refrigerators, microwaves, cooking ranges, mixies, cookers, Washers, Dryers etc., are available in a wide variety over here in Hyderabad/India. Samsung, LG, Kenstar, Whirlpool etc.

• Refrigerators vary from 25K [ tall models in India ] to 50k [ Side by Side ] to the 100K [ side by side with bells and whistles like mini bar etc. built in ]. Other features include no-frost, twin cooling [ more efficient since both sides are driven by different evaporators], cool select zones [ to adjust for vegetables vs other food ] and myriad other features..Samsung Fridge
• Microwave ovens come in all ranges and sizes from 20Litres to 37 Litre capacity with a number of features that I have never seen in the U.S. These features include a rotisserrie, Grill, Convection Oven and many other features including jog dial controls etc. They vary from 4000 to 15000.
  
• Cooking ranges come primarily in the gas with 4 or 5 burners and sunflame seems to be the leader in this. There are even the thin ranges which you can initially place on a table and in the future integrate into the granite counter tops like you see in the upscale houses in US. These vary from 3000 to 17000 for the thin models.
  
• Washers come in top loading, front loading, automatic from 5.5 kg to 10kg loads. I am really surprised to see the front loading models being available for very low prices in the market. People generally do not go for dryers but they are available in case you want to splurge. Washer prices vary by capacity and features. I have seen them go from 7000 to 70k, with the front loading + 6.5 kg being ~20000 - 25000.
  
• Airconditioners : They come in both the split as well as the Window type. You can also go for the larger multi-split which would be able to support multiple rooms with a single compressor. Being an ops guy, I preferred independent systems for A/C for redundancy [ or failover ;-) ] and I decided to go with the 1.5 Ton Split A/C for my 3 rooms...Samsung A/C

Now to my story, we decided to go with samsung all the way for the fridge, A/C, Washer and Microwave. We visited a couple of stores to understand the pricing and how it varied from place to place. We picked a fridge [ side by side ] and 3 A/C's and were about to finalize at what we thought was a great discount. Here is where you have to be very careful when shopping in India [ At least my experience was so.. ].

We reached home and were talking to my neighbor [ Referred to as Mr. R ] who said that the prices were too high and that the dealer may be taking me for a ride. He said dealers play these games with list price, sale price etc., and asked me for the model #'s and put in a call to 2 dealers and his friend who works for samsung. Within 24 hours, he came back with pricing that really surprised me and had major savings compared to what I have been quoted

The best part is that Mr. R gave me a well organized tabular entries on a white paper, that listed each model #, what to look for to make sure its the right model being delivered, what accessory#'s to expect, what else to demand in terms of service and freebies etc. The best part is the 1500 installation charge that the dealer claimed was non negotiable some how got knocked down to 1000, and he even got a few more freebies and a deep discount on the stabilizer etc.

Now, this is what I hate about shopping in India or may be I should love this, but being an outsider to this type of haggling, I was already declaring victory [ thought I was so cool that I already learned the tricks ] when I saw the prices go down in the first place.

The dealer is supposed to stop by tomorrow, take an order, give me a written committment on all the above items, a review with Mr. R, and I will be signing on the dotted line. Overall $2700 or Rs1.2 Lac for Fridge [ equivalent to what I had in US in a whirlpool model ] + 3 A/C [ incl installation ] + 1 Washer seems to be a good deal and Mr. R agrees that I am in line with what the desi shoppers would get when they visit a store... and he added.. your job is to watch out for what they deliver.. otherwise it will be a whole different story ;-)

Watch Out !!! ... Lets say you made a deal for an AC 1.5 ton of model JWDB which is a newer model, the dealer just delivers the older JWDA do make up for the additional discount he may be providing you. Since both of them look the same, you may not even realize the difference except in the newer compressor features etc that make the new one superior.

Oh BTW, aquaguard executive [ term for the poor sales guy in india ] is coming in tomorrow for a demo on their new water purifier.. What a contrast.... this guy showed up 1 day early to do the demo and my wife had to send him away to come on tuesday, while the BEAM broadband cable guy has not shown up until now.. 24 days and counting.. glad I called SIFY after 2 weeks.

Hyderabad Italian Food : Little Italy

I went to this little italian vegetarian restaurant called Little italy near Jubilee Hills Checkpost in Hyderabad. I was introduced to this by a close friend of mine.. I know, a lot of you are thinking, finally he is talking about vegetarian stuff.. I am a big fan of vegetarian dishes as long as it has atleast a starter that is non-..

It has a very well designed interior with the smallest restrooms I have ever seen in a restaurant. If I remember from my last visit to Hyderabad, this place was used for a parking/cellar for the building above. Looks like they have turned the parking space into a restaurant and the space was so well utilized that their power generator sits at the edge of the road. I Wonder if they will convert to a take-out joint the next time MCH expands this road.

First Visit : Menu was extensive and has too many choices to pick from. We ordered a couple of thin crust pizza's [ thats the only kind they seem to make ] along with an order of Eggplan parmesan [ who else would order that ? ]. The pizza came out well, but the crust was burnt in some places making it taste wierd. A friend ordered with black beans and it sucked, I ordered a Pepper-oni pizza I ordered [ not the real pepperoni, its peppers on the pizza.. duh what would you expect in a veggie joint ? ]. Reasonably priced, Nice place, but I could not order any drinks since it was Oct 2nd, which is a dry day in India.

Second Visit : It was my team's choice to meet here for a going away party and no one knew that it was vegeterian until one of them said.."Can we have a chicken starter to go with our drinks..". One of the team members decided to order grilled mushrooms in olive oil and it sucked big time... On the second round, the manager recommended that we go with the onion rings [ nothing italian about them.. but were good with the drinks ] followed by Chips + Salsa.. [ you heard it right.. eating chips and salsa at an italian place .. ]. Main course again was a combination of pizzas and they were delicious this time. [ We took extra care to avoid the ones with beans ]

When it was time to pay the bill, manager informed us that the credit card machine was down and that he could not accept the corporate credit card. After a few tries he gave up and offered to pick up the payment at the office the next day. It would have been a major pain to let him into the building etc., and we pooled the cash to pay off the bill.

Overall we enjoyed the food, but I would not recommend the outside seating since you are pretty much on the road and can hear and smell the automobiles around you.

Hyderabad Subway Experience : Did I tell you how much I love Ohri's

After devouring tons of Hyderabadi Dum biryani+mirch salan, and gobs and gobs of kubanee ka meetha, I finally took a u turn and tried the subway in Hyderabad at Jubilee Hills.

Everything from the baking ovens to the wrapping paper looked like they were imported or made for subway in India to look exactly like the ones in the US. I looked through the menu and found some interesting knock-offs like "Chicked Meatball", "Roasted Chicked" etc., On the local favourites menu were the Tikka Sub etc., that attracted my attention and I ordered one of the 6" tikka sub on wheat bread.

Wheat bread was cut and the attendant pulled out a small cup of pre-cooked chiken tikka and heated it up in the microwave. After that the normal toppings of lettuce, tomato, onions were followed by a gooey-yellowish-brown liquid which he referred to as mustard followed by a coating of mint-mayo. I ordered a nestea w/lime [ close cousing to the southern sweet tea.. which I am a fan of ] to go along with the sub.

Now to the um.. um.. ummmm.. part.. The taste was as expected... but I could not taste the chiken or the tikka due to the size of the bread compared to the amount of chicken that was in my sub. May be I should try their tuna next time to see how that goes.... and the tikka sub... I prefer the Ohri's Tandoor chicken sandwich anyday over the Tikka Sub.

This shop at jubilee hills, has a move-n-pick icecream store integrated into the same premises as the subway and I tried a scoop of their banana icecream, which I thought was creamy but slighly bland for my taste.. My all time favourite in hyderabad so far is Ohri's "Awful Awful" sundae .. [ I was introduced to this by my friend's daughter sne ] and I am yet to find something that can beat it..

Next Post.. Little Italy,a italian-vegeterian restaurant .

VOIP through Vonage in Hyderabad

Finally, I have broadband at home in Hyderabad. [ This is my first post from home ]. I signed up for the unlimited service which costs Rs1000+tax and provides a 256KBPS speed on downloads and 64/128 on uploads. Service is provided by SIFY and the qualityof the service is excellent. On initial pings to the gateway at their facility, we saw delays of 15ms and the installer called up the central office and some how got it down to 5ms.

My first test was to setup the Netgear Wireless Router and program the static IP. This required the installer to call in again with the mac address of the router and once that was added, everything worked liked a charm. I Was able to configure the wireless lan, and tested various sites including the ones in US which were blazing fast compared to what I have seen in my past experiences in Hyderabad.

Next I embarked on connecting the vonage router that I badly needed to keep in touch with friends and family back in the U.S. We hooked up the vonage router which comes with a nice feature of 110/220v adapter to the 220v power and connected it using a cat5 cable to the netgear router. My first call to the US was audible, but had a lot of packet drops and upon investigation, I found that vonage provides a bandwidth saver for connections that were not Cable/DSL quality. Couple of clicks on the vonage site, a reboot of the entire equipment after a couple of hours changed the call quality from worse to excellent. Since then, I called a couple of you from my new line and I could not hear any delays that you would normally hear on a VOIP line.

You will need :
1. A Wireless Router ( Get the ones that can take static ip + uid/password ). Do look for a 220v adapter for your router, its a pain to attach a converter in front of the adapter and the heat generated by the 110v to 220v converter is making me nervous.. I may go out and get a 220v adapter for the router tomorrow.

2. Basic Vonage adapter.. comes with the 110v/220v power cord.. so no issues here

3. A UPS would be a good addition, I will look for some during my first visit to the computer shops in ameerpet and will report back on how that goes.

4. A basic phone setup.. again, look for adapters that support 220v, using a 220 to 110v converter for the long term is a pain.

Hyderabad Customs : Container Clearance

Happy Birthday G and H!!! ...

The most dreaded time of receiving the goods has arrived. .. thanks to the excellent work done by my packers and the unloaders.. I am happy to report that everything made it without a single dent or scratch..

The customs clearance process has 3 steps followed by unloading and unpacking.

1. Destuffing of the container and 24 hr cooling off period
2. Examination and Duty Payment [ Officer will go through the boxes and estimate the duty on the items he thinks are dutiable ]
3. Delivery / Release [ Once duty is paid, they release your items to the delivery agent ]
4. Unloading at the House
5. Unpacking [ I did not sign up for this service.. since I had extra help at home ]

Tip1 : dont get into this on your own, have a 2 to 3 helpers along with you to make this easy. Too many things will happen at once and with 10 unloaders working on your consignment, its very likely they will drop, drag and do everything possible. Remember its a fixed price contract for them..

Tip2 : Have an excellent packing list, try not to put a value in there if possible but do highlight the year and model for electronics since it makes it easy to negotiate the value of the items while the officer is inspecting

Tip3 : All labor groups have an expectation of a tip, so talk to them before they start the work and set the expecation of a better tip if the work was done to your satisfaction. I spent 1200 Rs of tips for destuffing, loading and unloading and it was well worth it since they put in extra time and effort to do it right.

Tip4 : This was a very obvious risk that the inspector was taking by randomly inspecting the boxes, by law they are supposed to look through all boxes.. Do not bring alcohol, but if you do, it may be wise to declare it. My inspector asked me multiple times about it and indicated that his colleague has been reprimanded recently when a box with bottles was dropped by the loaders and was caught by the warehouse security before it left.

Overall, the customs inspectors were very friendly but lazy, they were so busy reading the newspaper until they got a call to expedite my container release..

... Now to the story.. ;-)

On wednesday, it was the ganesh nimajjanam and the shipping agent indicated that it may be a better idea to go to ICD ( Inland Container Depot ) located in the moosapet area on thursday. Destuffing was planned for wednesday but we were unable to find the labor or the officers that could sign off on breaking the container seal due to the holiday in Hyderabad. Due to other plans I had for thursday, I scheduled our family driver as my proxy [ a real task master ] to represent me at the destuffing area. Destuffing took around 3 hours, and he offered them a bonus ahead of time in return for not dropping boxes or dragged the furniture on the warehouse floor. Everything went well, and the unloaders even put some extra blankets below the furniture in the warehouse to earn their bonus etc.

Friday was the day for examination and duty payment. The Assistant commissioner who was responsible for the office was on leave and the rest of the office decided to show up late. I went in at my scheduled time of 11:30 and no one showed up until 12:30. At 12:30, I couldnt take it anymore and called a family member who knows a few higher ups in the customs department and after a few calls, everything started to move on its own, with everyone taking extra initiative to get things closed asap.

I had 3 helpers with me who were responsible for keeping their eyes on the consignment and the parallel processes. During examination, all boxes will be opened, doesnt matter what's in it. So, I left 2 of my helpers to watch the labor that was working to get the consignment ready for inspection. This included lining up the boxes in a row and opening them so that the customs official can look into the boxes randomly. While this was going on, I sat with the examination officer and identified which boxes had the items I wanted to declare, primarily electronics and valuables. They were not worried about used furniture or clothes.

One important tip is to create a very detailed packing list while the container is being loaded. It helped me a lot since all the boxes with electronics were marked with a E, the official had an easy time finding them and estimating the values etc.. Also note the year and model if possible in packing list, so that they can estimate it faster. I had to pay 15000+ in duty, which was much lower than I expected.. [ considering I had good bit of electronic stuff with me .. ]. In some cases, the customs agent looked through cases that had very basic items to make sure that it really had what is listed in the packing list. He stressed on the importance of not taking the risk with hidden alcohol multiple times and then signed off on the duty estimate. Rest of the process was handled by my helpers, they paid the challan in the extension counter of ICD, got the Assistant commissioners signature for release and then loaded up the container into 3 DCM trucks.

Trucks reached home at around 9pm, due to a union stipulated dinner break between 7:30 - 8:30 for the unloaders. While my team watched and made sure that nothing was being dropped or dragged by the unloaders, all items were brought into the house [ 1st floor ]. One challenge was with our 3 seater Leather sofa, that would not fit in the stairwell. They left it for the night in my neighbors house and returned in the morning to lift it through the balcony. Since I did not sign up for the unpacking service, I utilized my helpers to unpack the furniture and other major items, which produced a ton of waste ( 80 wrapping blankets + 100 empty boxes ) on the first day itself.

Overall, it was a tedious process, but leveraging your contacts for the right purpose [ Due to the audits around ICD, they are willing to only get involved in expediting the process.. which I thought was fair.. ] and having extra help on hand can make this process easy.

Container Arrived in Hyderabad..

Got a call from the local shipping agent that my container has arrived in Hyderabad. On this note, I caught up with a couple of friends and colleagues that have moved here recently using the same company and the horror stories surrounding the process in hyderabad are not very encouraging. Folks have had to literally beat up the shipping company's agent before they got anything done. To be fair, this story is not specific to the one I used, it seems to be common with all the local shipping agents.

I have put in a call for extra help from my family, and reinforcements are arriving for the day I take delivery of the container. The biggest challenge seems to be with the process of unloading [ into customs warehouse ] and loading [ back into small trucks to be delivered at the house]. Here they use the small DCM trucks and it takes atleast 3 to 5 truck loads before everything reaches home and you can understand what all can go wrong during this time including the theft of small boxes etc.

Today is ganesh nimajjanam in hyderabad, and its an official holiday for the state govt offices and schools. Considering the traffic and people movement issues, even MNC's have asked folks to stay home unless absolutely necessary and only essential personnel have been asked to show up. While driving to work, I noticed that a lot of shops have not even opened their doors.

More later..

Weekend Update : Gacchi Bowli, Hitec City, Kondapur, KPHB

Happy Birthday P!!! ... Hope all my blog readers had a good long weekend. Since the request has been for regular updates, I intend to use the next 30 mins to scribble about the past weekend.

2007 Business planning sessions kept me busy for days and it all ended with a gathering followed by a great dinner and drinks at the recently opened Novotel hotel in Hitex ( HICC ). Visits to such places reminds me of how much Naidu has done for Hyderabad, not sure if these are his ideas, but the architecture and the plans of Hitex and the supporting hotel which is now managed by accor group is breath taking.

Novotel, the hotel in HICC had the best service staff and the management I have seen in Hyderabad. The lobby was well designed with lots of open space and natural light, and leads into a pool area, that is tastefully landscaped using the natural rocks, lake and palm trees. This open area was used for our dinner, and it had a bar, buffet, lots of tables and seating space.. at the end of the evening every one was so impressed by this space that they were already planning for their team's next Off-Site meet here. As usual the menu included Bar+Starters, followed by a elaborate spread of veg and non-veg food and desserts.

Saturday, I took some time off to meet with old professional acquaintances followed by a lunch with my buddy's father-in-law at Chutneys. Talk about a simple andhra food concept that still attracts thousands of folks every day. This was my 4th visit to chutneys since I arrived in India and at 3 after noon, there was still a 20-30 min wait. Had my favourite item Babai Idly and also tried the Rava Onion Masala Dosa on the recommendation of my lunch partner. Umm. Umm.. [ Some one send me a clip of rachel ray saying that please.. I almost forgot how she does that ]

Saturday evening, I visited the chikkadpalli gang that I had last visited in 1992. As i drove into the area, it was pretty clear that the city of hyderabad around RTC X roads and Himayathnagar has not changed much except the road widening. Every gully had their own Colorful Ganesh Pandal with atleast 6 to 10 feet ganesha's. Spent a lot of time with some close friends followed by a dinner at Blue Fox and headed back home.

On the way back, I noticed some unusual activity in the ntr gardens area and instructed my driver to turn the car in that direction. Many ganesha's from the city were arriving for nimajjan.. which confirms that HC order is not being implemented. Teen-Maar, Nagin/Snake-Dances, People doused in gulaal, Convoys of kids bringing their own little ganesha's were a common sight. The area was was very well lit and was under intense watch by the police. One observation I made is that Desi blood mixed with alcohol leads to nothing but the nagin/snake dance.. half of the crowd was drunk and they were in the same mode I used to be in my favourite basement parties of DC... "T Dude", I have seen some cool steps that you would have enjoyed which were a fusion of Teen-Maar and Snake Dance.

Moving on to Sunday ..

Please get me some red and green shirts, Deccan Chronicle astrologer says "Red and Green is the winning combination for virgo's for the coming year.. Red will help with health.. and Green helps with avoiding any obstacles" That should give you an idea of how much time I spent in my car going from one development to the other to get a feel for the Hyderabad Hitec Area. This is the first time, i have completely read the DC hyderabad edition including Tarot Power, Jessica Simpson's cosmetic surgery, Beyonce's advice to women about owning atleast one sexy dress, and some Harry buying a wedding ring for his girl friend lindsay.. totally clueless on who lindsay is and why she made it to DC.

Woke up very late and decided to head to the Gacchibowli area to look at all the things that folks keep referring to in every discussion. We drove on KPHB on the Hitec-Kukatpalli road. Most of the land here is empty with the first half km having great roads and then ends up in normal Hyderabadi roads. They have even constructed a Metro Railway station here, but I thought that it was not too appealing due to its distance from the center of Hitec City. [ The parking lot of this railway station had tons of cars making rounds without any purpose, little did we realize that it was being used by car driving schools until we got closer ]. Then we hit KPHB Phase 4, which looked like it was gonna fall in the next thunderstorm followed by Rain Tree which is a huge complex of new apartments and a mega mall. All you JNTU'ers, remember the rocks behind your college?, thats what has transformed into this bustling township. Its good area, but nothing impressive for the prices its commanding, there was too much undeveloped land around that could be built up by other builders.

Headed to the popular whitefields area. Every one in town told me how cool this area was and I found it to be an impressive concrete jungle with very less open space. Apartments here are going between 3000 to 4000 per sqft. It reminds of Gandhi Nagar area with 40 feet main roads.. The advantage with this area is that you are surrounded by neighbors who are IT professionals and are like minded. Take a left after satyam and just in front of Jayabheri's silicon towers and this is considered to be the whitefields area. Dont get me wrong, the the layout is good, but it looks like every developer is building 100 flats in less than 0.5 acre lot. Couple of areas called vasant valley, alluri something[ it started with alluri ] were good but they were still stuck in between high rises. My favourite story of the day a sales pitch I had .. Salesman pitched on how good the balconies are, what they forget to mention is that the land that these balconies open up belongs to another company which may build another complex or what ever they want.. but it doesnt seem to affect sales, people are banking on the doubling of prices in another year... Good Luck !!!!

Had lunch at Wangs Kitchen, where I ordered Pad Thai and Pepsi, taste was in line with my expectations but it was not made with flat rice noodles, instead it was made with regular chinese noodles. The portion was huge for Rs 100, and I could only eat half of it. Spent the rest of the day visiting Gopanpally Area, Kondapur, Aparna Construction's Orchids [ Excellent layout next to Hitex, but they should have left a little more space between houses.. ]. Aparna constructions is considered to be a very good builder that doesnt cut corners in the construction quality, so they always command a premium in their layouts.

Overall, construction is in full swing in this area. While I drove past the CA and microsoft campus, I noticed that L&T crews all had their hard hats with access to First Aid facilities onsite etc.. May be the MNC's are requiring indian construction companies to get strict on safety with all the construction related deaths that happen in town.

Time to relax and get ready for my container which I heard is in Bombay and has not arrived in Hyderabad yet...

Updates :
Its been 2 weeks since I ordered beam cable internet, the guy is no where to be found.. my neighbor quipped.. "dont worry.. he will show up when he is ready..".. Next day an interesting discussion at lunch led into ways to identify a bad service provider.. "Make it a point to visit the office before you sign up... if you see broken glass or windows .. you know what to do "


Hey, it only took me 25 mins to write all this ?.. Not bad, will try to be more chatty next time.. Ciao