Continuing from my previous post, I heard that one of my acquiantances in Hyderabad threw a going away party for their son who was traveling to the US to do some course in some university in the US. The kid had finally arrived :-).

Hyderabad & Me

I had a very interesting weekend. My brother visited me after his recent trip to the US. His "pilgrimage" to the "chosen country" certainly lived up to my expectations. He had a lot of comments to make on everything including the research system, which I personally, think is superior to the Indian system.

The "pilgrimage" however brought back a lot of memories of the time that I lived in Hyderabad. I was working in Satyam at that time and used to live on my own. At that none of my immediate family lived there and I was dependent on second cousins and a whole lot of distant relatives for "home" comfort. My family is distinctly middle class with its own concerns about education, software job and the dream was of course the "holy pilgrimage" to the US. Just as in the previous days, places like Varanasi and Rajahmundry were aspirational cities, so was the US. Everywhere that I went, I used to be asked sympathetic questions if I were unsuccessful in getting admission to graduate studies in the US (never mind that the university/course was not my aspiration) or I was unsuccessful in getting a job in the US via a good consultant or I was unable to snag a groom settled in the US.

It seemed odd that I was continuously defending my choice to remain in the country of my birth. I felt battered every time I attended any social event. I never understood the obsession with "settling in the US" with "US returned" being a distant second choice.
There were however other things that more than compensated for my relatives.
I worked with an amazing team in Satyam and made some very good friends. I found common friends who agreed with me that "gult" guys from Andhra ought to be the last choice for husbands. They helped me discover amazing restaurants and movies. Till date I believe that Hyderabad has the best "value for money" restaurants for all kinds of cuisines. I can still remember the taste of the biryani in "Persis", the dhabas after Bowenpally, the shopping in Paradise, Sultan Bazaar and Ameerpet, the movie theaters in Abids, RTC X roads, Sangeet and the Sunday second hand books market opposite Santosh.

I am planning to go to Hyderabad this coming weekend to meet a few of my cousins. I do hope I will have some time to rediscover my old haunts, but I am almost scared to go back and discover that all these have changed.