Hyderabad reveals herself

I have now finally arrived in Hyderabad and am starting to get my bearings. This is a very big city and incredibly crowded. I know it doesn’t rival Mumbai but this place is still crowded and congested by any European standards.

I have seen my flat a number of times and the more time I spend there the more certain I am that I can make something good out of it. It will no doubt become my escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. The apartment is large but in western eyes rather primitive. I have now come to know that I am living in something that is rather upscale for India. There are 4 guards on patrol at night at the little complex! There is also a nice roof top with a pool. Before you conjure up images of MTV Cribs with bikini clad lovelies walking around with trays of cocktails, it ain’t like that. However it looks clean and I think it’ll provide a great way of cooling off when the temperature starts to rise.

Tomorrow I am off with a colleague to try to acquire some furniture. As I am going local market style for interior decoration of my apartment, I think there will be an unbelievable amount of haggling involves. Sigh. I realise I will end up with things a lot cheaper than Europe but I am not used to the means of getting there yet. I can already feel that when people see a white man walking around in shorts they just see huge dollar signs. I looked at some furniture at a stall and their asking price was similar to Europe and they had a guy making it out back. I just need to know learn how to drive a hard bargain. It is as J says “You haven’t succeeded until you see them cry”... we shall see.

But for the moment I am doing OK. There are a lot of impressions all the time and I can feel that I just need to go with the flow and let things happen here. Know where my boundaries and wallet lies and then take it from there. I have spent today walking around a national park grabbing a bit to eat and drink at one of the many small shopping centres that seem to litter Banjara Hills. I also took a motor rickshaw down to the Hussain Sagar, which is the large artificial lake in the middle of Hyderabad. I have to learn to be more persistent and insist that the meter is used. I paid 100 (12 kr.) rs to go there and 50 rs (6 kr) to go back and I probably got ripped off both times. The distance is about 3 km. Also on the way back the driver insisted on taking me to buy pearls and only buckled when I firmly insisted that the ONLY place I wanted to go was my hotel.

I feel that I am developing some kind of internalised conflict between wanting to shelter myself from the realities of this place and at the same time wanting and needing to understanding and experience this culture. I am trying to find the balance and trying to tell myself to be patient and not feeling bad for feeling overwhelmed at times.

That more or less brings us up to the here and now but I would also like to reflect at little on what I saw in Northern India. We left the town of Chandigarh at 05:30 and moved out of the city on 3 lane wide roads, however as we move north the roads are being rebuilt, which entails that you switch from what will at some point be the northbound track to what will be the sound bound track every km. This means dissecting oncoming traffic and generally driving in what mind remind most of a total construction site. The apparent chaos had also lead to an accident between a car and a motorcycle. I believe the accident may have been fatal as the motorcycle driver was lying very still in the road.

We move up into the mountains along very winding roads. There are large limestone quarries and cement production, meaning that almost every vehicle on the road is a truck. They are covered in colourful pictures, symbols and writing; all with the purpose to bringing good luck to the truck and its chauffer. Now driving up a mountain in a car with a local driver is not for the faint-hearted. Vehicles pass each other constantly irrespective of blind turns and the horn is in constant use to either tell people that you are coming through or that they should get out of the way. After 4 hours of driving we have reached our Destination 175 km away: The town of Sundernagar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundernagar). Here a friend of a colleague took us around showing us the various sites, including a site that is referred to in one of the great Hindu epics. From Sundernagar one can get a great view of the snow clad mountains and it is a testament to the diversity of this country.

After a meeting we start on the long journey back first to Chandigarh and then onto Delhi. We leave at around 17 and with a 2 hour stop for dinner; we are in Delhi by 03:00.

That more or less brings us up to speed. I will try to fill my next blog with more details, but I am a little tired at the moment and also want to gather my thoughts and impressions.