Eat Street

My FAVOURITE part of Hyderabad...Eat Street....It is not because of the "Eat" aspect...but it is the beauty of Lake Hussain Sagar that fascinates me. You simply need to take a chair on the first floor of Eat Street and stare at the wide expanse of the calm waters of Hussain Sagar....The white Buddha statue, illuminated bright and bold would look back at you...silent and calm...My friend from Mumbai told me that this looked like Marine Drive and the latter of course is along the coast....The lights on the other side of the lake would form an elliptical border around the water body....I always wondered what would it be like to look at Hussain Sagar from the top...I mean a bird's eye view....The "lake breeze" is soft and you could almost hear the leaves of the coconut trees whispering to each other...However you would not hear them on weekends...My dad loved the place too...The day I got my first stipend and my dad was in town, I proudly took him to Eat Street....."I should come here more often..", he told me.

B School to School

Here is a little experience. Few days back, I happened to be guest to the annual day function of an International School called Parkwood located on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
"It's yesterday once more...." The famous Carpenters' number rang in my mind as I saw the children at Parkwood school perform on stage on their third Annual Day function and their parents proudly watched them, some with glistening eyes. It remimnded me of my mom and dad watch me perform on the school stage on our annual day. At that time it was more important to remember my lines.Now , it was important to watch the proud faces of the parents.
The kids played, danced, sang, anchored and won awards. A vote of thanks followed and we broke for dinner. It was a grand feast and teachers, students, parents and guests merrily chatted over their food! We were busy exploring the non veg section. The "international" chef managed to do some justice to the same.On and off you would find a cute little boy coming up and wishing you "good evening ma'm!" and run off giggling with his other friends. They did it more often to Chavi, my beautiful model friend and you could see their delighted faces when she patted their little brown heads and smiled.
The drive back home was awesome. It was an hour drive through the barren lands of Pargi on the outskirts of Hyderabad. It was 11 o clock at night and pitch dark all around as our Tata Safari zoomed past the desert bushes and dry farm lands. The drive reminded me of the long stretch of Arizona desert between Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. The golden moon travelled along with us as my eyes constatntly kept following it. Everyone in the car slept off . Little Masood and myself were wide awake. He was singing a strange Urdu song which somehow matched the mood. Sometimes the sound of silence can be great company, I realised. The city of Hyderabad emerged at a distance and you could see a sea of lights welcoming you.

The Solitary Reaper

"Behold her! Single in the field,

Yon Solitary Highland lass..

Reaping and Singing by herself,

Stop here; or gently pass.."

I am not very literary but I think Wordsworth wanted to highlight the happiness and strength in being solitary...or let me reframe it.....the strength that you get if you manage to be happy when you are alone..(it is a bit difficult...trust me). My recent fascination with blogging is probably due to my latest encounter with the bestseller "Chicken Soup for Women". It feels great to be able to communicate without actually forcing people to be around you...I have always believed that I am a better communicator when I write than when I speak...I was surprised to find that I actually did not mind having a blog that was personal....my friend told me that it was a dangerous sign.....

The temple

I've never been religious...But I guess staying away from home makes you a little...Despite my lack of interest in religion, I somehow always loved small temples, the ones you would find on your way to work, tucked away in a quiet corner of some silent lane...I love monasteries too and the ambience surrounding them....I remember the one in Sikkim...the lovely Buddha chants would float towards you from a distance....the music would be quite haunting...you could smell the pine forest and the fresh fragrance of wild flowers in the heart of Kanchejungha...One would be awestruck to see the little bald Buddhist children dressed in maroon robes....one would be compelled to compare the childhood he had led and the one these "children of God" were leading...The peace would make you intellectual...

Hyderabad does have a lot of temples but most are the big ones where you had to queue up to talk to God...In my desparation to find a small peaceful temple I accidentally discovered one inside Apollo Hospital campus....My friend thought I was mad. I examined the possibility with seriousness but finally decided that I wasn't. The evening aarti towards Lord Venkataswarya was quite beautiful...The smell of camphor reminded me of Saraswati puja we have at home every February. I felt at home.

The Sound of Music

I just finished watching the movie....I always wondered what would it be like to be one of those seven kids in the movie....I loved Liesl the eldest daughter of the Von Trap family...I remember being jealous of her when I was sixteen.....the rebel in the family who refuses to have a governess ( not that I ever had a governess...!)...She led her naughty team of siblings and systematically planned mischief against poor Julie Andrews...I used to yearn to be like her...The best part of the movie was the dance between Liesl and her boy friend, the telegram boy...in the glass house...I always wondered how he managed to twirl her and she with her legs outstretched gracefully never touched the glass wall!! I loved that grace! Then she would jump from bench to bench with the "I am sixteen" beat...and she would do it so fast! I first saw the movie when I was thirteen years old and I remember hiding my face when they would kiss after the dance....Speaking of kisses, I recall Arundhati Roy in her "God of Small things" describing the kiss between Captain Von Trap and Maria....it was quite amazing.....Each time I watch the movie I plan to settle in Sulzberg...Hyderabad does have a Sulzberg of its own. The other day Nupur and I went for a walk along MLA Colony in Banjara Hills...the road was fragrant of earth after the rain....It was a lazy Sunday and the rain had just stopped....The sky above Lotus Pond looked mauve....and while inhaling the fresh air, you felt like u had just inhaled all the good things in life...we climbed and ventured into the interiors of the rocky land....you could see those houses, rather palaces and the ones that faced Lotus Pond looked like the house of Christopher Plummer in the movie...We somehow manged to get lost and we actually trespassed private property, crossed a barbed wire from a height of six feet and entered Lotus Pond from the upside....I never knew I was capable of that....! But it was overwhelming .....The Sound of silence was exhilerating.....

" I'm on the top of the world looking down on creations" We were standing on top of a mini cliff...you could actually see the road winding like a horse shoe around KBR Park from the height and the cars looked really tiny....They looked like toy cars when your flight had just taken off ....God knows why I was counting the number of cars that passed....that too in Telegu...."Okatti , rendu, muru, nalu, aidu,....." I remember counting the number of wagons of the eternally slow "maal gaadi" when our school bus stopped at the level crossing in Dhakuria....

" Rain drops on roses, whiskers on kittens...

Bright Copper kettles and warm woollen mittens..

Brown paper packages tied up with strings..

These are a few of my favourite things..."

ICFAI

A typical weekday out here starts with a shrieking alarm set at seven. A quick browse through The Economic Times followed by " roti sabji " for breakfast. The "sabji" is usually systematically destroyed with "kadi patta"! After the rush hour, one reaches IBS, Nagarjuna Campus by 9.30. Classes are interrupted by short five minute breaks for a quick coffee at aunty's canteen or mail checking at the IT lab. Usually classes are till five. Then follow the team meetings! Different teams for different subjects. Meetings are for meeting deadlines for the projects or any forthcoming case discussion, where the idea is either to give a presentation or be ready to handle any question by anyone in class. Despite working till quite late, one either carries work home or the team decides to meet early next morning. However we do manage a reasonable amount of sleep!
Weekends are heavier! All Monday deadlines are worked on during precious weekends. But then, some weekends are simply great. The gang usually hangs out at "Eat Street" or catches up with some sloppy movie or simply indulges in a chat session at a friend's place. For some, the best alternative is sleeping off the week's woes! I indulge in a bit of all.

About Me

" Once two mice fell into a bucket of milk and started drowning. One of them drowned , while the other one continued to swim and churn the milk till it turned into cream. " - Leonardo de Caprio ( in his famous movie, "Catch me if you can").
Life is a bucket of milk and it is upto each one of us to choose between drowning in the milk and turning the same to cream.
Phew! That was heavy wasn't it? Well, I do not intend to portray myself as too serious a person! I enjoy life and am lucky to have a great family and a fantastic group of friends. Both my parents are dynamic entrepreneurs and I hope to follow their steps someday. My younger sister Ishita is a street-smart gal( pardon my colloqualism!) and is pursuing her graduation in Economics. We are great pals.I love reading novels and my favourite authors are Jane Austen, Ayn Rand, Richard Bach, John Grisham, Agatha Christie, A.C. Doyle, Satyajit Ray, Shashi Tharoor, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy and many others. Let me also say that, for me, childhood and Enid Blyton are synonymous.But today J.K Rowling has to a considerable extent rejuvinated that childhood spirit in me and I am an ardent fan of hers! I also love writing and "The diary of Anne Frank" had actually inspired me to start my personal diary, which has apparently died a natural death after I joined B school!
Wait! I am not the bookie type! I enjoy swimming and driving as well and MUSIC is my life! V.Balsara has remained my pen friend ( hey! it's okay to boast a little!) . I actually have a huge portfolio of musicals, the partial composition of which is given below:
Oldies: Md.Rafi, Asha Bhonsle, Kishore Kumar,Hemant Kumar, R.D. Burman, O.P Nayar,
S.D.Burman.
Current: A.R.Rahman, Illayaraja, S.P.Balasubramanian, Udit Narayan.( both Hindi and Tamil)
English: Richard Clayderman, Carpenters, ABBA, Cirque du Soleil, Baba Maal, Kenny G.
What?? No movies?? Of course! The list is endless! Cheers to HBO and that should suffice for now! Some of my favourite Hindi movies are Lagaan, Munnabhai MBBS, ....