Re-visiting Hyderabad amidst its warm and grand
Hospitality!
(01/05/2015 to
04/05/2015)
“No matter what
you plan for or make up your mind for, you will land up to wherever you are
destined to.” I know I never do pre-planning, which sometimes leads me to take
instant decisions. In such cases I always feel that I never have to decide on
my own, as most of the things get done on its own, and whatever happens I know
happens for the good. Such a good thing happened last weekend, when I had a
long weekend of 4 days continuous holidays at my disposal and I had yet not planned for it. Rishika, my friend cum Roomie, invited me to her home at
Hyderabad to spend the weekend. As I had been to Hyderabad earlier also, I was
quite reluctant to her offer, but her continuous insistence out of her genuine
love won my little heart and I said,” OK, I'll come.” :-)
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| Touchdown; to the green! |
We left on 30th
evening after Office hour and reached her home by 10:00 pm at night. To tell
you guys the truth, I was a little uneasy at first, for I am not as extrovert
as I seem to be, and it takes me time to mingle with new people. But the kind
of love and affection her parents showed, the jokes her husband cracked made me
feel at home soon. And there I was, smiling, chatting and laughing amidst the
Telugu language speaking people and their pure Hyderabadi hospitality. You
won't believe what our routine for those 4 days were; wake up late, eat, drink,
sleep, get ready when the weather cools down a little, watch movies and sleep
again. In just 4 days I could feel my body putting on some extra weight. :-P
Aunty allowed me
to make tea for myself in the kitchen on the very first day, as none in the
family drink tea. She admired the nice aroma arising out of the tea (thanks to
tata naturals) and expressed her wish to have it when I make it next, which
came the next day. Lol My laziness chases me everywhere, especially when at
home. The delicious homemade dosa for breakfast and yummy Biryani for lunch,
with Aunty ji's love and in between sleep-wake situation; oh yeah! We were on a
full-fledged vacation.
As the days were
quite sunny and super hot, we kept ourselves to home most of the times, just to
get ready in the evening and strike the road. On the very first day only, it
was one of Rishika's friend's birthday and she insisted me to join as well,
which I did, though reluctantly, as you know I am way too shy to be an
uninvited guest too. Hmm But all ok! Rishika was so happy to be with her
childhood gang, and for me it was fun to see and observe new people, friends
meeting friends, all too excited and happy, pulling each other’s legs, amidst
of the other crowd at coco's with background live music, which I guess very few
were listening to and admiring, and yes of course, I was one of them. Lol
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| "Abhi to party shuru hui hai!" '-) |
On day second, as
promised 'yeah I made tea for Aunty too. Though she admired, but only I know
the real thing. Hehe Nevaa mind, my taste bud dosen't work, and I just assume
that I make a nice aromatic tea. Supa_delicious! And after repeating the same
routine for the day, in the evening we (Tarun-Rishika's Husband, Tarun's
sister, Vicky-Rsihika's brother, Rishika and I) went out to Prasad's Mall where
is India's biggest iMAX 3D Theatre and enjoyed 'Avengers”! Before Movie we had
some fun and scary stuffs like Mirror maze and visit to the scary house. It was
our lungs full of laugh day. LOL And no stopping, as after Movie we went to NTR
Garden and had some lively moments. And for dinner, Rishika took us to
Hebanaro, the pure Mexican Restaurant and relished Mexican delicacies. Oh
forgot to tell you, she is a Big-big foodie, and she knows all about what to
eat, what not to eat and about all the ifs and buts of each and every
restaurant and keeps herself updated of any new opening of her favourite eateries.
: P
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| "Fun-time!" |
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| "Some lively moments!" |
We were so much
on the roads that by day 3rd I was almost feeling like a local, I
mean a Hyderabadi, Rishika showing me the wonders of the city, like diamond
shaped house, castle type hotel, state assemblies and courts like palaces. And to
add to all these, as I was surrounded so much by Telugu speaking people that by
then I felt that I could understand Telugu as well. Thanks to Rishika and Tarun
for helping me over explore the City. :-) Yeah on day 3rd, we were
on road by 10:30 am to visit the famous Salar Jung Museum, which I couldn't go
last time. To my utter surprise, it was even Tarun's first ever visit to the
Museum, and when I asked,” Why didn’t you visit it till now?”, humorously
he replied, “I knew that one day Nawang will come and we will go to the
Museum together.” LOL Funny man!
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| "Nawabon ki shan; Shan-e-hindustan" |
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| "The 7 dwarfs, bagpiper, soldiers and many more! |
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| "Oh that crowd is assembled, just to have a glimpse of talking clock" |
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| Well, wonder not, these are the walking sticks of our Nawabs!" |
On a sunny day
like that we expected very lesser crowd, but to our utter amazement, it was
fully packed. We had to wait for a good half an hour for a place to park the
car. Then pushing through the crowds, we went from one hall to another and
enjoyed and admired the wonders of the Museum. It was quite big and took us
long to explore the first floor only. We were so tired later that when we went
to second floor, all three of us looked at each other and agreed in unison that
we should go home now. Tarun again joked, “We will keep the second floor for
your next visit to Hyderabad.” haha
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| "Rest time bole toh Selfie time! Tired han!" |
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| "Happy Nawi" |
After the
tiredness, we ate like hungry beggars when we reached home, followed by a pig's
sleep. And at around 4:00 pm Rishika woke me up, saying the weather is so nice
and we should leave for Birla Mandir, which also I skipped on my previous
visit. Vicky also accompanied us. The weather was so much in our favour that we
were just delighted when we drove. And on reaching Birla Mandir, I couldn't
contain my happiness, when I saw the Mandir and its location on a raised hill
top amidst big rocks in the middle of the city, I was overjoyed. It was purely
made up of Marble, with engravings of some scenes from the Mahabharta and
Ramayan like samudar manthan, Sita Ram Laxman, Brahma ji etc and the main deity
to which the Mandir is dedicated is 'Lord Vishnu'. There also as the crowd was
so big, we had to line up and wait for our turn to come. The view of Hyderabad
city with Hussain Sagar Lake in the middle was mesmerising from the temple. The
wind blew so lovingly and gently, making everything look beautiful. It is said
that a visit to Hyderabad is incomplete without visiting Birla Mandir, and true
it was. And then I realised that my second visit to the city had to do
something with this saying as I skipped visiting Birla Mandir on my last visit.
Well, that was the highlight of the trip. :-)
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| "The blessed souls!" |
After seeking
the darshan and enjoying the view for a while, we drove back and went to
Hussain Sagar lake, and sat at eat street, facing the lake, which though looked
beautiful but had bad odour due to too much of pollutants inside. No wonder
just in the morning I read in the newspaper that some Austrian Company will be
helping out to clean up the lake. Good han! Hmm
Oh well, coming
back, I was surrounded now by 3 foodies at one time; Rishika, Tarun and Vicky,
chips, frnakie, momos, pizzas, garlic breads etc. And reaching home, they didn't have delicious
homemade food, for which I kept some space and relished the food Aunty offered.
After all the real satisfaction I get is by eating homemade food only. (wink
wink)
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| "Aunty ji's pure affection!" |
Oh, soon it was
the 4th day, and we didn't realise how these days had passed in a
wink. We had our flight in the evening, so Tarun requested for a morning shift
at work so that we could drop us and see us off. So cute of him! So early, but
not so early morning at around 7:30 am Rishika took me to KBR National Park,
the lungs of the city. It was our last spot for chilling, and beautiful it was
with its beautiful possessions in the form of many birds of which the Peacock
population dominated. It was for the first time in my life that I got the
chance to see so many Peacocks from so close, playing around, jumping, hiding,
fluttering their feathers and dancing with their best moves. We spotted more
than 50-60 of peacocks on our way while taking the round of the park. It was
real amazing! It was sunny though, but that had little effect given to the
beauty around to view. We sat there for some while looking at the Peacock
dance, running squirrels, singing birds and relishing the peace around to the
core.
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| "Ah, these beauties!" |
Rishika's
hospitality didn't end here. She drove me to 'Chutneys' one of the famous
Restaurants to make me taste the real South Indian delicacies. Idli, Dosa,
Varities of chutneys, Juices etc etc, and we relished them to our stomachs'
fill. Overeating it had been, for when it was lunch time, we both were like,”No
space abhi, let's have it in the evening before leaving.”
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| "Yummy; South Indian delight!" |
And in the
evening around 4:00 pm after getting ready we again sat around the dining
table. I had to say later,”Khila khila ke maar daloge kya?” Lol Vicky
had his own point,”Quantity defines happiness!” Lol so, next time when
you have some Hyderabadi guest at your home, don't forget to pour your love
through food, and make them happy by reaching deep down to their belly. (wink
wink)
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| "Lemme take along Aunty ji's love and blessings!" |
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| Tada Hyderabad: Thank you for everything |
So, with tummies
full of memories to cherish, we boarded our flight back to Mumbai in the
evening. And overall experience of this trip was “A-Awesome & Super yummy!”” (smiling)
