HYDERABAD TIMES
BY
MURALI MURTHY
A few meetings and client visits lined up and had to make a visit to Hyderabad.
As I started planning the visit dates, the instantaneous thought that came was - Let's drive!
I had not seen Hyderabad at all, it was a good opportunity to extend the stay and explore Hyderabad.
And I was itching to go on a long Road trip, as it's been more than 3 years we did that.
With this basic plan to mix work, sightseeing, leisure and to cover the long due Mantralaya visit, I asked Preeti to pack our bags for a 5 day road trip.
With the excitement and eagerness to take a long road to Hyderabad, we started our drive on Sunday morning.
I had just got my car serviced and I was warned of experiencing minor wobbling due to weak tyres, which I was fine with.
As we covered half the stretch, the wobbling got fierce and it was not a comfortable drive, as the steering control got extremely hard.
I somehow managed to reach Hyderabad at sub 80 speeds.
Hyderabad's traffic welcomed us, as I struggled to navigate inside a new city, to reach our Hotel.
Traffic per say was not really discomforting. Being from Bangalore I have seen much worse jams. But the indiscipline and revolt natured attitude of all other drivers (both car and bikes) left me baffled and in shock.
Neena from Mini And Jone Hospitality had made arrangements for my Stay, to suit my budget and location preference.
Finally reached our Hotel Lemon Tree in Banjara Hills. By the way, everyone who heard that I am staying in Banjara hills, had elated reaction and told me it was the most upmarket and happening places in Hyderabad.
Banjara Hills as a locality was good, probably didn't live up to all the hype. It did have couple of Malls, Pubs and some well known brand of Shops.
We hit the bed early and had a quick dinner in the Hotel.
Next day morning, started the day with a sumptuous, heavy breakfast served in the Room. The Hotel has closed its dining options and served food in room, due to Covid protocols.
With my wobbly Car and the shock I was in seeing Hyderabad traffic, we decided to take a Rickshaw and explore Hyderabad.
Hyderaabaaaadddd!!! The Nawabon ka City and the charm of old city is obvious with everything the city has to offer. It starts with the quantity of food they serve, apart from the stunning architectural masterpieces, heritage sites and glorious history.
Our first destination was Charminar - Hyderabad's icon and pride. It does offer Paranomic view of the area, as we climb up the tomb.
It does offer some stunning photography opportunity.
Though the authorities have done a decent job in maintaining the place, considering the historical importance, probably a little more efforts to maintain discipline and cleanliness in the surrounding, might help the monument to offer more to it's visitors.
It's shopping heaven all around Charminar. From clothes to bangles, it has a lot to offer for someone like Preeti. If I had gone alone, I probably wouldn't have spent more than 30 minutes, while Preeti took 3 hours visiting many streets, and yet was complaining she hadn't covered lots of shops!
Our next destination was Chowmahalla Palace.
A typical palace that provides glimpses of glory of the past, enigmatic lifestyle of the rulers those days and the grandeur.
It's a massive campus with 4 palaces. As I had a meeting scheduled, we had to cut short the Palace tour and return back to Hotel.
Later in the evening, we headed towards Hussain Sagar. Before that, We stopped at Birla Mandir.
An audaciously built temple of Lord Srinivasa on a small hillock. As you climb up the temple made of pure white marble all over, you see massive 11 feet idol of the Lord. You get to see him up close and feel blessed by his huge form.
The temple offers spectacular view of Hussain Sagar lake and surroundings from that height.
As photography is strictly prohibited inside the temple, we couldn't capture the beauty of the place.
We then hopped on to our last destination of the day - Hussain Sagar lake. The entrance is via Lumbini Park. We weren't greatly impressed with the park or the artificial water falls which was crowded with people taking photographs, and we headed straight to the Boating area to visit Budha Statue island.
The water in the lake is horribly maintained, it was stinking badly and seemed like entire city's drainage ends there.
We took some pictures of the Buddha Statue and didn't alight at the island, but we preferred to return back in the same boat. One is usually allowed to stay at the island for some time and take another boat to return.
We ended the day at Zing. It was a calm and breezy roof top joint to spend a beautiful evening.
Next day I had scheduled a full-day work and series of meetings. As Preeti took Auto-rickshaw to visit her relatives places, I gathered courage to take my Car out for the meetings. 2 tyres were flat! As I slowly drove and managed to find a small tyre shop, he started checking one by one, and the soap water started splurting air at almost 4 to 5 places in each tyre. It was as bald as me, and 3 out of 4 tyres were out of shape, that's why it was wobbling so much.
I had no choice but to change all 3 tyres, and rest of the drive was smooth.
On my way back to hotel in the evening, I was warned of heavy traffic due to Eid celebrations and processions, and never to enter the city center. To my bad luck, with all chaos on the roads, road blocks, I missed the route and ended up in the city center.
It was scary, horrific and a harrowing experience, driving through scores of people celebrating Eid!
What kinda celebrations are they!!? It was scary, violent and unruly. More than celebrations, it was like Law is off today, you are free to do whatever you want! I don't have words to express what I saw and what I heard on the loud speakers, I had to literally beg them to let me through and not to damage my car. It was more like a violent protest and celebration! Of course, there were few good men who tried to call them down and allow traffic to pass through, as police helplessly stood and watched.
After a good day of work and pathetic drive back to hotel, ended the day to party hard at Hard Rock cafe.
4th day of the trip, we departed Hyderabad and headed towards Mantralaya. The flyovers all over the city always made me wonder only if I knew how to use them, which I finally did to exit Hyderabad, it's extremely well planned and designed to completely avoid traffic and reach the highway/airport in a jiffy!
The drive via Raichur to reach Mantralaya was a pleasure - straight, 2 laned, traffic free roads.
Stopped at RTPCL on the way, for few clicks.
After settling down at the Room and resting for a while, we headed to the Mutt to have a relaxing and peaceful time in front of Rayaru. It was evening and less crowded and we could spend as much time as we wanted with Rayaru.
No better place to be on a Thursday, at Mantralaya. After a rollercoaster 2 years, struggles and hope for better days ahead, it was a much needed visit to Mantralaya seeking his blessings.
We did all Seva and Namaskara that we wanted to do. Though it was heavily crowded and constant inflow of gushing tourists, we were blessed to have enough number of darshans, attend all events and witness the Maha Mangalarathi was fulfilling and blissful, despite massive crowding.
The sumptuous food served for Lunch with piping hot rice, saaru, huLi, payasa and Curd rice was so gratifying.
After a quick nap, we headed our drive back to Bangalore.
1300 KMs and 24 hours drive time was so satisfying. Probably age is showing up, and as I type this Travelogue, my legs and back still hurts.
It was a blessing in disguise that there are very few good hotels on NH44, and we loved food stops at the raw Dhabas on the highway. The food there was healthy, filling and tasty.
What I realized in this trip was the wheels of economy is dependent on each of us. We are directly responsible to get Indian economy back on track.
I contributed to so many small businesses, shops, Auto-rickshaw guys and hotels.
We do not realize how many lives depend on us, and we can help millions of them earn their living by just doing normal things - By just going to office, simply going to tourist places, by dining out.
This Paranoia of getting infected just by going out was any measure, millions visiting Mantralaya or Charminar each day would be in hospitals now. Millions and Millions "Celebrating" Eid would be infected and Case Count would be in Millions as well.
Let's be practical and logical, and not just lead a life filled with paranoia and over protective about just individual self.
