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.

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 18^th. 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.

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.

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.

Celebrations 2006 for Sierra Atlantic

Yesterday, we had our organization's anniversary party - the 13^th one. Had this at the Laserium next to Lumbini Park. In true Hyderabadi style started half an hour late at 7:30 pm and went on till late into the night.

Was a pretty good show. Included a classical dance, an Audio Video Presentation, service awards, 2006 reflections and 2007 plans, a dance medley and the laser show.

If you are in Hyderabad, don't miss the laser show at the Laserium. This takes place at 7:30 pm on weekdays, and on weekends has an additional show at 8:30 pm too. It's the first of it's kind in India, and has a mix of laser & multimedia. It showcases the entire history of Hyderabad - how the name came to be, then and now. All the projection is done on an aqua screen. The fountains and the designs are mind blowing and reminded me of the fountains at Bellagio in Vegas. Quite nice.