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