Travel Diaries: Hyderabad Day-5

Hyderabad turns into it's delightful alter-ego on weekends, especially early in the morning or late at night. It took me just 15min this morning (Saturday) to travel the same distance that would normally take 45min during peak hours. Instead of being stalled in traffic and sulking, I actually had the pleasure of looking around and taking the city in. I saw this beautiful sculpture with symbols of Pounds, Dollars, Yens and Rupees at a major intersection. I made at least eight trips across that same intersection and this morning is the first time I noticed it.

Perhaps I was inspired by the morning cab ride. I started noticing people more during the day today. I overheard a young worker at our house saying that he only showers every other day and he does not feel good about touching God's idols when he does not shower. Another guy in a separate scenario spoke out loud involuntarily: "I would know such things if my mom were alive". 

While shopping, I was looking for something in shades of greenish or grayish black. The sales guy looked clueless when I asked for grayish black so I asked simply for grey. The guy said they don't make those colors. In came my sister. Cement color, she said. Yes, said the sales guy. I guess you don't just need to know what you want, you also need to know how to say what you want if you want to get anything in this town.

I feel that one of the best features of Hyderabad is how one can get everything around here. Any major street you hit, you would find anything and everything. Flowers, fruits, stores, beauty parlors, and bookstores are pretty much everywhere. Today I went from getting a hair cut to a stainless steel store to buying a bunch of fruits, flowers and produce all one the same road. And it is not even a mall. These are just your mom and pop kinda stores. At one of those stores, I saw fresh jasmines today. The smell was so intoxicating, I declared that I don't need any dinner tonight. 

I could write about the driver who tried to rip us off, I could think about the street seller that handed me the two worst looking banana saplings (and I did not think to ask for better ones). My mind keeps wandering over to the good stuff. The yummy dinner made by mom. Eating that dinner in the park with cousins. The jasmines. The sweet little worker that's so honest about his bathing schedule.  

I realized that the question of moving back to Hyderabad versus staying in the US is not so black and white. It is grey. True Hyderabadi should say- it is cement. :)