Sunday evening

I came back to the apartment from my family's house mid-afternoon or so. Spent most of the weekend getting some sorely needed sleep. Also, I read Circus by Alistair MacLean. For probably the sixth of seventh time. It is a book that really enjoyed as a kid, but more so, it is a connection I have with my late aunt. One of the greatest highlights of every one of my visits to India, until her premature death in 1995, was spending time with her. We shared a love for certain books, the most important being the Three Musketeers. Circus was up there as well.

My cousin Bobby came over in the early evening to take me shopping for comic books for my daughter before the team came back from Mumbai. After waiting a few minutes for the drizzle to let up, I got on the back of his Honda motorcycle and we sped off on our mission. We made a left onto the Tarnaka main road, went under the flyover, turned right and worked our way through the expansive campus of Osmania University. This is not an area of the twin cities that I have frequented before this trip, and Bobby is my guide to all things Hyderabad whenever I come here. But it sounded very strange when he pointed the campus out to me. It seemed like such an obvious thing. I guess I am getting to know this place for myself.

The streets were full of the usual masses of humanity. I cannot estimate the numbers of persons one passes on the road even on a brief excursion like this one, but it must number in the thousands. I love traveling by two-wheeler in India. It is second (albeit a distant second) only to travel by rail. Car travel is convenient but too protected if you want the full Indian experience. Countless times, my knees missed by inches motorcycles, cars, autorickshaws, buses, bullock carts and people. It was not until we reached a large intersection that Bobby put on his helmet. I tried to be invisible as we passed the traffic cop, remembering an interaction two-and-a-half years ago, when we got busted for no helmets. Better luck this time, it turned out. After the intersection, we ran into a semi-impromptu parade consisting of about 30 participants, 4 or 5 musicians earnestly blowing into woodwinds and beating on drums, and an innominate deity.

We made our way down a road that I recognized from our week going to Osmania General Hospital. We proceeded to hunt for bookstores and were directed to a strip mall of sorts. We entered the first store and asked for Chandamamas in Telugu and Hindi. The guy looked at us like we were insane. "Only English, saar". I picked out some Amar Chitra Kathas and for some reason got a 10% discount. Which Bobby tried to talk down even more, using such logic as "500 is a round figure, why do you want us to pay 550?". It made sense to me. Next door, still no luck, and next to that was strike three. We got back on the motorcycle and headed back home. Passed roadside carts full of guavas, oranges, fried stuff, and corn. It was dusk now, and the coals on which the corn was being roasted looked and smelled incredible as we sped by. Saw a total of about 10 men relieving themselves on the side of the road. By the time we reached the poorly lit Osmania campus the sun had set completely. We passed another thousand people or so by the time we reached road 12-5-55 and pulled up in front of Samskruthi Heaven apartments.

My hair was coarse with dust kicked up from the road. My lungs burned from smoking the exhaust of 250 two-stroke engines. My blue pants had a rim of black at the cuffs and my back ached from maintaining my position behind Bobby on his Honda. I headed up the steps with a deep sense of contentment. After sixteen days of being here, I finally felt like I was in India.

My two cents

Alright, so this is my first blog ever (like most of the group). So here we go.

Just a few initial thoughts: When we arrived at the Hyderabad airport, I was really excited. I was a little nervous about my role in the group. Kind of an outsider being a student and not knowing everyone as well. But also, since we were staying with my family, I feel like I am a pseudo-host. So my initial excitement also contained some anxiety about whether these other guys would have a good trip.

But by the time we finally arrived at the apartment, I felt extremely comfortable. My family help build this apartment building a couple of years ago, and I have stayed here multiple times. But this is the first time where it felt this close to a "home". I don't know exactly what that means, but it was a good feeling.

But then I woke up this morning and we started walking around the neighborhood. And I realized that I know very little to nothing about the community around me. And that is what makes this trip so interesting for me. Besides my family and their friends, I have rarely interacted with other people living in India.

The last thing I wanted to mention was the change from Amsterdam to Hyderabad. For the next two days we are free and have no agenda (much like my two days in Amsterdam). I wasn't a great "tourist" in Amsterdam, but I knew what to do because being a tourist is so easy and defined. Both Amsterdam and Hyderabad have museums and monuments and the like. But Hyderabad isn't a tourist driven place. It's a place where there are a large amount of people living typical Indian lives. I've thought for a while that if foreigners to the US wanted to see how most Americans live, they would go to Cleveland, or Charlotte or St Louis or Albuquerque - not NYC or LA. I see Hyderabad as that kind of city in India- and that's also kind of the reason why I am intrigued to learn more about it. That probably doesn't make sense, and/or you don't agree with it. But that's just a thought.

Arrived in Hyderabad

So here we are. The flight from Schiphol to Begumpet was pretty fun; five of us sat in a row and Sujan was close enough that he visited often. Movies were Spider-Man 3 and Dhoom 2. I had seem both before, but did enjoy the Mr. Bean episode. Had an extremely interesting conversation about service projects in the developing world. There is clearly a spectrum of enthusiasm for these among our group. It will be interesting to see if anyone's view changes in the course of the next 3 weeks. We reviewed the map of Hyderabad/Secunderabad and I pointed out the places we'll be going.

Once we arrived at Rajiv Gandhi airport in Begumpet, we were greeted by Ravinder, Sujan's cousin, and his posse. We had a caravan of three vans to Tarnaka and saw Hyderabad streets at their most desolate (it was 2:30AM). Our accommodations here are outstanding and Sujan's family has been extraordinarily welcoming. Had apples and water. Off to catch a few Z's.