Decem­ber 13

1. I nearly miss my flight from Ban­ga­lore. I am early to arrive. But they change the flight num­ber. Silly. I hear my voice on the inter­com and then the speak­ers. “Call­ing pas­sen­ger Anita.… Last call to board” I rush to the board­ing gate. Hurry, says 2–3 offi­cials. (Yah, right, what do you think I’m doing?!). Get some dirty ‘how-can-you-be-so-late’ stares from some pas­sen­gers. Dang.

2. Nice break­fast. Eggs. Sausages. Mmmm. Almost makes up for last-minute ‘plane miss­ing’ experience.
3. Hyder­abad first impres­sions — Nice roads. Looks so neat. No girls :(
4. Hakim­pet, Secun­der­abad is a 40-minute drive. My friend Ruk­shana who works for the Air Force is posted there.
5. The rick keeps going. Seems like the mid­dle of nowhere. I reach. Finally.
6. In the evening, we make a trip to Ban­jara Hills where her in-laws stay. Get another look at the city. Impres­sive build­ings. A major Mughal hang­over. From the leg­isla­tive assem­bly to the museum to the hos­pi­tal, you can’t miss the pre­dom­i­nance of the domes and spirals.
7. We decide to watch Tehzeeb in the evening. Friend’s brother-in-law dri­ves like a maniac to Prasads. All tick­ets sold out. Janasheen tick­ets avail­able (No, I scream!). Then to Anand. All sold out. Hmmph… But nice drive by the Hus­sain Sagar Lake makes up for movie miss.
8. Talk to Ruk­shana till about 3 am. We have lots of things to dis­cuss. But nat­u­rally. We’ve been mar­ried for 12 years between both of us ;)

Decem­ber 14

1. Wake up early and make it to the Yatri Niwas to catch daily tour bus.

2. Sight­see­ing starts with the Birla Tem­ple. Impres­sive mar­bled struc­ture. Espe­cially if you’re into gods.
3. Next, we climb 316 odd steps to Gol­conda Fort. Good exer­cise. Nice view too. Also proof that we are no longer as agile as we used to be.
4. Qutb Shahi tombs next. We decide on a long dis­tance view and eat instead. Bad food. Mah­toob sounds exotic but the dal and sabji are tastle­less and disappointing.
5. Salar Jung Museum is impres­sive, well main­tained and houses a really good col­lec­tion. The nearby (not much pub­li­cised) H.E. Nizam’s museum is even more impressive.
6. Charmi­nar — There’s too much traf­fic at the old city. The bus is diverted some way from the gate. We catch a quick glimpse. (How can I got to Hyder­abad and not see the Charminar?!)
7. The zoo — The only ani­mal I get to see is the white tiger. Ruk­shana refuses to walk fur­ther. Can’t blame her. It’s the sec­ond time she’s see­ing all the sights!
8. End of the day. Back to her in-laws place to freshen up.
9. An hour later, I meet with the Lazy Lump at the Barista in Ban­jara Hills. He’s seems nei­ther lazy nor a lump! And he’s not as shy as he claims to be on his blog. Maybe, he needs to rethink his image! LL is a charm­ing young man who’s from the North, but works in Hyder­abad. How­ever, I get the feel­ing I’ve seen more of the city in one day than he’s seen in his one and a half years ;) We chat over coffee.
10. After cof­fee, friend joins us and we take a rick­shaw to drop LL on the way. At the sig­nal, a truck comes hurtling towards us. The rick­shaw dri­ver, swerves out of the way at the last moment. And thank God, because the truck dri­ver doesn’t seem to be see­ing any­thing in his path. A close brush with death (or at least with an acci­dent!). My first meet­ing with LL will be for­ever inscribed in my mem­ory. LL (if you ever come to Mum­bai) the traf­fic here is much bet­ter, may I assure you :)
11. Friend takes me to her supervisor’s place for din­ner. She works for the Air Force, where every­one is Sir and Madam, so I get to meet a lot of them! I even meet an old school mate. How small is the world?

Decem­ber 15

1. I am tempted to go para-sailing at the Hus­sain Sagar. The weather is gor­geous. And some­one is already out there, para­chute and all, sail­ing over the lake. Unfor­tu­nately, we don’t have the time, so we set­tle for a ‘6-minute’ speed­boat ride around the lake. It’s def­i­nitely a quickie, but it will just have to do…

2. Friend takes me pearl shop­ping (how can you come to Hyd and not buy pearls?). How indeed? Bad idea, how­ever. Despite my resolve, I weaken as the guy lays out beau­ti­ful coloured pearls in front of me. How could I not pick up a few?
3. Lunch is biryani at Par­adise. A very pop­u­lar place, judg­ing by the long queue wait­ing for tables. We stuff our­selves with chicken tikka and biryani.
4. Time flies fast. Have to leave for the air­port. Why didn’t you take a few more days here, asks my friend. She’s prob­a­bly being polite!
5. Get to the air­port well in time. Lounge around since I’m early.
6. At 6.30 pm, I am finally back in Mumbai.
7. Look­ing back, it took me 55 min­utes from Hyder­abad to Mum­bai and one and a half hours from Mum­bai air­port to home.
8. Amen!