Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Hyderabad Derby

This weekend, the six of us Murli, Vyshnavi, Shashank, Fauzia, Mahi & I went to the Hyderabad Derby at Malakpet, Hyderabad. Murli and Vyshnavi had passes to the event, and had invited us. They had also invited Sanjay & Anu Khendry.

Traditionally, while races are held every weekend, the big derby's are held only twice a year. This years' derby was sponsored by Vijay Textiles.

The dress code for any of these events is strictly formal - trousers, shirts, blazers and a tie. While I did blanch at the thought of formal wear, having worn it for 2 and a half years continuously in the NDA (National Defence Academy), I decided to go through with it, for the experience.

We all piled into Shashank's car (an Opel Astra), and I drove. Boy, I don't remember the last time I drove an Opel. Vyshnavi's father is one of the Stewards in the racecourse, and as such we managed to get premium parking.

On reaching there, we made a beeline for the main hall. Apart from the horses and races, the racecourse is also famous for the food. Simply mind blowing. We had reached the place at about 1215 hrs, and as such, lunch was already served. The non-vegetarian section was exceptionally good, and so was the vegetarian stuff too. The food included Biryani, Haleem, Mirch ka Salan, Palak Paneer, Chicken and Mutton dishes, and a few more which I don't recollect as of now. The dessert section included Khubani ka Meetha, Ice cream and Rasmalai. Quite nice.

Post lunch, we moved into the VIP area, to witness the races. I can say this with conviction, it is a completely different world out there on the field. While it took us a while, and help from a kindly old gentleman there, to learn the basics of betting on the races, the emotions that run there are really something.

Right from the time that the horses are brought out on parade, and placed at the starting gate, to the time that the take off, clear the tracks and finish in the race, emotions run high amidst the crowd. People surge to the fences and shout out ecstatically.

We too tried our hand at betting on the horses - no large sums of money, smaller sums. Thankfully, while we didn't make any money, we ended up recovering whatever we had bet, so all in all it worked out OK.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

SASCON2007 - The Annual Sierra Atlantic Sales Conference

Today, we formally kicked off SASCON2007 (Sierra Atlantic Sales Conference 2007) at HICC (Hyderabad International Convention Center). The tag line for the event this time was Opportunity. The last time the tag line had been "Achieve the next".

The venue is really fabulous. The HICC is part of the Accor group, and the whole setup is not even a year old in Hyderabad. Everything is squeaky clean, spic & span.

As part of the kickoff, we had an inspiration sales video running, which i put together over the last few days. Nothing special, just mixed a bunch of photographs and text together.

We also had a traditional Hyderabadi Chowki dinner on the evening of the 18th. The Chowki dinner is symbolic of the Nizam rule, and was the royal formal dinner of that era. It involved sitting down on the cushions and eating out of silver plates and drinking from silver / golden goblets. While we definitely didn't have the golden goblets, we did have highly polished plates, and silver serving bowls. Each Chowki could accommodate six people, and all in all people had a whale of a time. The dinner was very well received and kudos definitely go out to the entire arranging committee, including us (as usual - no modesty!!!).

Will try and upload the video too that I had created, space permitting. For now, you can feast your eyes on some of the arrangements and decorations for the dinner.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Planetarium

Last week, Mahi & I visited the Birla Planetarium. I was going there after nearly 15 years. A lot continues to be the same while some portions have definitely changed. It is located on the panoramic hillock of Naubat Pahad in Hyderabad and is a visual treat to the advances made in science and technology.

Inaugurated in 1985, the Planetarium offers visitors, daily sky shows, in Telugu, Hindi and English. The topics cover various aspects of the Cosmos, the beautiful mysteries of the Universe, the comets, the Hubble Space Telescope, Eclipses, the puzzling Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) and the very recent clash of the Titans.

When the lights were dimmed and the night sky was projected, there was a collective”aaahhhhh” from the audience as the illusion of being transported into the galaxy was complete.

Adjoining the planetarium is the Birla Since and Arts museum, which comprises of excavated architectural artifacts of the bygone era, interactive science experiments and the arts of different cultures and civilizations. While the science section does need some maintenance, it’s a good learning exercise for one and all.

The latest addition to this area is the Dinosaurium - a new wing which houses among other exhibits, a 160 million year old mounted "Kotasaurus Yamanpalliensis", excavated in Adilabad district and presented to Science Museum by the Geological Survey of India. This one exhibit was huge and was about 8 meters long and 3 meters tall and the beauty of it all – a herbivore. Apart from this highlight, the Dinosaurium also has a collection of smaller fossils of dinosaur eggs, marine shells and fossilized tree trunks. Sadly, the one thing which was an eyesore was the defacing of the posters and paintings inside with people having scribbled messages and names on them.

The image on the left is a representation of how the dinosaur would have looked in it's heydey.

In case you haven’t had a chance to visit this area, do try and look it up. You won’t be disappointed.

Japanese Acrobats

Today Dad sent me a video clip of a Japanese Circus. Simply mind blowing!! The precision, control and accuracy with which these guys perform is something that I have never witnessed before.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Rayomand Bamboat a.k.a yeda bawa

If you were wonder who "Rayo" is, as I keep mentioning him in some of my posts, well, here's a snap of him. Rayomand Bamboat, as we know him, is one of my best pals, and I've known him for donkey's years - and believe me, if you haven't seen how long a donkey's ear could be, i can assure that it is quite long!!

He's currently a master in the merchant navy, and is on leave for the next couple of months.

Incidentally, this snap has been taken in our driveway, and the hedge is coming up quite well, thanks to the gardener.

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Friday, January 5, 2007

Our road trip to Srisailam

On the 2nd of January, Mahi & I drove down to Srisailam for a day or two. Srisailam has one of India's largest reservoirs, as well as the largest tiger sanctuary. Srisailam is a temple town located on a 452 meters high hill in the Nallamalais. The hill itself is called Rishabagiri and used to be on the southern bank of the River Krishna. Thanks to a 512 meters dam across the Krishna, Srisailam now overlooks a huge reservoir.

The drive was amazing. We left early in the morning by around 5 - 5:30 am, and went via Charminar. It was a dream to zip by those roads with virtually no traffic!! Crossed Faluknama and then hit the highway. The outside temperature was between 8 to 10 degrees centigrade, quite chilly.

Srisailam is about 232 kms from Hyderabad. The road to Srisailam is peppered with small towns and villages. You do need to slow down as you approach any town, lest you come across chickens, cows, buffaloes and even human beings crossing the road, oblivious of the oncoming traffic.

We made our first halt just short of the dam, where we had breakfast (sandwiches & chana batana). Washed this down with some Gatorade - lemon flavored. For those who aren't acquainted with this drink - it's really good, tangy and refreshing. I personally like it a lot.

Anyhow, we continued down the winding ghat roads to the lower bridge and then back up the ghat roads on the other side. The Srisailam town is about 16 kilometers from the dam. We finally reached the APTDC (Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation) Punnami Hotel at about 9:30 am. Checked into the rooms, freshened up and then walked around a bit.

We visited the main temple - the Brahmarambha Mallikarjuna Swamy temple. This is a Shiva temple of antiquity, which may be traced back to the Buddhist period and perhaps even earlier to the Mahayana school of the Buddhism, which is known to have flourished during the 1st century A.D. The temple is located inside a fort with stone walls which in turn had motifs sculpted on the walls. The entrance to the temple is flanked by two gaily colored guardians.

All around the main temple are a number of small shrines venerating the various Avatars of Lord Shiva, like Jalalinga, Vayulinga, etc. A bit away and beyond two flights of stairs is the temple where Brahmarambha Devi is worshipped. The temple complex also has a number of other shrines like the Panchapandava shrine and a number of Matts, prominent among them being one established by the great Adi Sankaracharya himself.

This is primarily a Shiva temple and is one of the 12 Jyothirlangas across the country. As a result, there are hordes of people who come to seek the blessing of the lord here. We bought the Rs. 100/- VIP ticket (which entitles us to a free laddoo) and made our way in. What was really disheartening was the amount of commercialism. People assume that just because they have bought the Rs. 100 ticket, they have a right to get in and shove their way through. It is quite sad to see that people are fighting and jostling amongst themselves to get into the temple. At the end of it all, when you do get to see the deity, it's for a matter of seconds only. Makes you wonder if it was worth all the effort! After the temple we went to Canteen number 1 which is just outside the temple for food. They had quite good food, simple and nice. Quite cost effective too.

After that we decided to walk down to the ropeway and Pathalganga. This is a good 2 kilometer walk from the hotel. There are about 500 steps which lead you to Patalaganga. The Patalaganga Ghat comprises of a series of steep, irregularly cut steps, which according to an inscription in the temple were build by a Reddi King of the Kondaveedu Reddi dynasty between the 15th and 16th century. This place is where in the good old days, people used to carry out pujas etc. In case you do not wish to climb down, you can also use the rope way. We used the rope way primarily as it gives you a great view of the reservoir. Also, at the base you can opt for a boat ride till the dam and back. There are two distinct shades to the water - Dark green (towards the center) and light Green (towards the edges). While the APTDC has powered boats, one can also venture out into the waters in a Coracle. These are round, Bamboo baskets- as big as beach umbrellas, tarred to be waterproof.

We chose one of the powerboats which needed a minimum of 15 persons. Thankfully there were a couple of other people around, owing to which the ride was possible. Post the ride, we walked back to the rope way, and that’s where we say their communication device. This is an old wind-up solenoid based phone, which they use in the event that the walkie-talkies are not operational. They kind of reminded me of one of the field phones used by the army.

Once we came back on the top, we walked back to the hotel, and then took the car and went out to see the tribal museum. The museum building is shaped like a huge Shivlinga and is completely circular on the outside. Inside, they have life-sized models of the different tribal villagers, their implements, apparel, pets etc. The guide spoke in Telugu, though it would have been great if they also had an English and Hindi translator too.

Post the tribal museum, we drove up to the Shikaram. This is a small temple located on a hill, which has a Nandi bull right at the top. According to the local lore, if once is able to spot the trident on the spire of the main temple (that I had mentioned in the beginning of the article) from here, then that person's life is blessed and he/she would be free from rebirth. The fact of the matter is that spotting the temple itself is quite difficult owing to the distance, hilly areas and the clouds and fog. Everyone was trying their level best to spot it, but to no avail. This place also has a huge outline of the shivling made from iron, which has bulbs on it. This is lit up at night, and is said to be quite beautiful. While we were there, it was broad daylight, and as such couldn't see the structure lit up.

While driving back we also stopped at Paladhara Panchadhara, a place where it is said that Adi Sankaracharya meditated for a year. This place has beautiful banyan trees all around, and is right next to the forest. In fact there is a path leading down to the forest too. The roots of the banyan trees can be seen breaking the cement surface, and some of them which are growing down, have in turn touched the ground and become as hard as trees themselves. When we came back to the road, we chanced upon a street entertainer and his monkey. Mahi had a great time feeding the monkey some chana batana, while the entertainer was gracious enough to pose for a couple of photographs. He was a very genial chap and didn't ask us for any money. We took a couple of snaps here and then drove back to the hotel (a distance of about 6 kms) and crashed out for the night.

The next day in the morning, we left back for Hyderabad with plans of visiting one of civilizations' untouched waterfalls. About 50 kilometers out of Srisailam, we took a diversion (right turn) at a village called Vaduvarapalli. Our destination was Mallelatheertham (the waterfalls). This diversion is for a distance of 6 kilometers and passes through the village of about 20 huts. Electricity has touched this village only last year, and the road has no tar on it - in true terms a Kaccha Road. We actually drove through the fields, and all we could see in the rear view mirror was the tons of dust that kept rising as a result of our journey.

At the end of 6 kms we came to an abrupt drop, where we had to park their car and walk down multiple flights of stairs. These would easily number over 250. At the base of the steps we met this fascinating gentleman who was a sage (sadhu). He originally hailed from Bangalore and was a Yoga teacher. A couple of years back, he had decided to give up everything, and that’s when he chanced upon this place and decided to settle down here. The only company that he has is the 200 odd monkeys here, and the occasional tourist (like us) who chances upon this place. He doesn't ask for money, loves to talk and converse. Apparently, a lot of people just bring rice / grain and gift it to him. He in turn cooks the same for himself as well as the monkeys. He is fluent in Telugu as well as Hindi. We had a nice time talking to him.

About this place - it is rumored that as per Hindu mythology, when the Pandavas were in exile, they spent one year here. There are a couple of idols on one side in this area. While three of them are recent and have been there only for the last couple of years, one of them is really ancient and is supposed to be from the time of the Pandavas. There is a natural waterfall on one side, the source for which cannot be seen. The water comes from the rocks only, and falls down into the pool below. The waterfall is there all year long, and even during peak summer owing to the water and dense foliage, the place is quite cool. Also there is a Shivlinga at the base of the waterfall, on which the water falls constantly. This too is supposed to be really old.There are huge trees the roots of which are gnarled and thick. We took a couple of snaps here too. In fact one of the trees had its roots all over a rock and had cracked the rock into pieces. This place has also been one of the shooting locales for a Telugu movie called Chakram. As I had mentioned earlier on, this place is virtually unknown and it is only now that AP tourism is sitting up and noticing it.

We left from Mallelatheertham in about an hour and then drove back to Hyderabad through the tiger reserve. All in all, it was a nice short trip.

Monday, January 1, 2007

New Year Celebrations


We had a really small but good get-together on the night of the 31st at our place. Murthy Uncle, Meena Aunty, Mom, Dad, Rayo, Mahi & I were the constituents of this group.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Had swung by Rayo's place in the evening, and since everyone else there was going over to Zenobia aunty's place for the celebrations, we (Mahi, Rayo & I) decided to head home.

We diverted via the New Food World which has opened up opposite Poulomi Hospitals, next to Sainikpuri. Picked up the Pillsbury rich chocolate instant cake mix - not for the microwave but for the cooker, as we decided to make the cake the hard way. Incidentally, the cake was an egg less one.

Headed home, initiated the baking process and sat down to watch Star Wars part III - Revenge of the Sith, as this whole month, Star Movies is telecasting the Star wars Saga every weekend.

While we were watching the movie, Meena Aunty & Murthy Uncle came over, and we all had dinner together. The dessert of course was the cake.

We all got down to a few rounds of Uno, as well as Scrabble also known as Spell-O-Fun. We finally finished the scrabble game at about 11:50 pm, followed by a small photo shoot. Murthy Uncle won, followed by Mom, Meena Aunty and Rayo.

We also called up Chinni and Raja at the stroke of 12 and spoke to them.

All in all, a quiet new year bash.