Ripples of my Reflections

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Year: 2012 (Page 4 of 5)

Memories from Madhapur || Food, Language and People

March 13, 2012 / / 12 Comments

Hey people,

I am outta my hibernation 🙂 To say the truth, I forced myself outta it because it could go on for a while given its way, but blogging is something that I cannot afford to give up for small troubles. So here I am to finish off the Hyderabad Series and start something else.

I present to you the last part of the Hyderabad Series…

This post I am going to cover food (Yeah I can see your mind jumping to “Biryani” 😛 ). I am going to elaborate on the restaurants in and around Madhapur, for I have tried out most of the famous ones, being a foodie that I am. But please note that my comments are only for vegetarian items and for egg based dishes, for I do not venture beyond egg into the non-vegetarian section. I tried out the very famed Paradise Biryani for the first time at the Hi-Tech branch. I have to say, my taste buds were satisfied. Paradise clearly lived up to its expectations. After trying various dishes, I would say the best, in my opinion, would be Egg Biryani and Baby Corn Manchurian. In the same chain, Café Nandhini at Madhapur excels in South Indian Dishes as Dosas, Varieities of Idlis and the Pulav here beats the rest in the locality. I would recommend you to try each dosa here as all of them are fantastic. Another restaurant Taamaram that was opened recently has a similar menu and prices are also almost the same, while it provides a classier environment. My recommendation to you at Taamaram would be the Mushroom Masala Dosa and Tuti-Fruity Ice cream. And if you are forced to give a treat by your friends and you have a lighter wallet already, take them to Amantran at Madhapur. The food here is pretty good and it is not that expensive. Same would go for Taamaram too.

Hyderabad House at Madhapur is specializes in non-vegetarian section, as I hear, but I would always love the butter naan at this place with either of Mushroom or Baby Corn Manchurian. Other good restaurants are the newly-opened Veggies365, 4 seasons, Chutneys, Big Dosa and so on.. the list is really endless. Hyderabad people, I know I would have left out a lot of good restaurants due to lack of my roaming skills. Please do tell me which ones I missed out and I will head out immediately 😛 I will leave the food section with a last note, if you come to Hyderabad and leave without tasting the Hyderabadi double masala biryani, your whole trip is a waste.

And I cannot leave the post without talking about the people here and the language. From a newbie’s view, I must say the people of the Hyderabad are quite nice, helping and multi-cultural. At least that’s how all the people who I met first were. Coming from Tamilnadu (A state cursed to know only Tamil and no other language) I was amazed by the level of Hindi knowledge among the people here. Later, I came to know that Hindi is as important a part of curriculum in schools here as other subjects. It is so in most other states except mine 🙁 And then Telugu, I do not know why, it caught on quickly. The language called out to me in an unique way and within 6 month I could manage decent Telugu and now people don’t believe me if I say I am not a native of Andhra Pradesh 😉 I feel that the language is used in a sing-song tone and is very pleasant to hear 🙂

Otherwise, the culture here is as diverse as any other industrial city. People from the north and south mingling in and everything. I would say the city will welcome you with open arms and will amaze you with its different faces. Each day you will find something that you find interesting in this city. I enjoyed my stay here and I hope you will too 🙂

Until later 🙂

P.S: I have read all your blogs  in the past few weeks but just did not comment for the same reason as I didn’t write in my space. I just needed a break.

P.P.S: DIGS, I remember the deal about guest post. I will send it to you soon 🙂 Thank you for the patience 🙂

Hey there!

February 22, 2012 / / 4 Comments

I am taking a break from here, just a short one (I hope). I am neck-deep (or even more) in trouble. Need to sort them out before my life goes to shambles. Meanwhile, please stop being lazy and give your thoughts on the previous post 😛 so that I can continue the series once I am back.

Until later 🙂

Memories from Madhapur || Places-2

February 16, 2012 / / 6 Comments

A big thank you to all those who gave me enough encouragement to carry on with the series. So, here I am, presenting the sequel.

Now about places that are famed for sight-seeing, I went on a quest to visit most of these places so that I can see for myself and they were awesome 🙂 A few places, where I haven’t yet been, I am planning to do it soon 🙂

Charminar: The famed Masjid with 4 minars. A must-visit monument. The streets around the charminar call out to you and will surely be a match for your shopping urge. But never forget to bargain downright for everything, else you will find a big burning hole in your wallet.

Salarjung Museum: This is one of the most awesome museums I have ever seen. It holds all the collected treasures of the Prime minister of the 7th Nizam during the Nizams rule.This museum will take a day’s time if you want to do justice to it. Here I am gonna give you a few highlights which you must not miss in this museum.

  • Musical clock: This clock is a visual delight among many other clocks in the gallery. For every hour, a time-keeper emerges from a deck and strikes the gong as many times as is the time of the day.
  • Veiled Rebecca: This is a white marble statue of a woman. What’s the deal in that, you ask? The woman is Rebecca, a princess, who is sculptured as she draws her veil. The big deal here is the folds of the veil is so intricately carved on the marble that your eyes fail to believe that it is indeed marble and not a piece of cloth. You gotta see this to appreciate it fully.
  • Double Statue in the Statuary gallery: This statue is that of rich man on the front side and that of a poor woman on the backside. Awesome sculpture.

Apart from these 3, there are so many galleries as Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Carpets, Weapons, Statuary, Textile, Porcelain galleries. The list is just endless. It is worth your time.

Birla Mandir: Everyone knows about this white marble temple. The carvings on the marble catch your heart and the white marble radiates purity.

Nizam Jubilee Pavilion: This made my day, to say the truth. This is the museum where the gifts presented to the Nizams are exhibited. The 6th and 7th Nizams have had a hell of a life, I must say. The sixth Nizam guy has had an interesting habit. He has never worn a same dress twice in his life. Hence he has the largest wardrobe in the world which is about 250 feet long with a trial room between 2 blocks of wardrobe. Can you believe it? And the 7th Nizam guy determined to beat his predecessor, has used stuff that is made of only silver or gold embedded with navratan stones. Starting from his throne to his tiffin box. But what made go like “what the heck!” was even the cup in which he spit after chewing pan was made of pure gold. The tools used for laying the foundation of the building, the walking sticks, letter boxes,toys for the children- all these were of silver, gold, ivory embedded with gems. No wonder India was a rich country. There is also a 180 degree glass painting of the 7th Nizam is an awesome masterpiece.

Chowmahalla Palace: This is the durbar of the Nizams. Fine marble floors. The exhibits include the stuff that the Nizams had used in their daily life. The chandeliers here were awesome. The carpet before the throne was embroidered with gold thread.

Golconda Fort: As you know, this has been the shooting spot for Magadheera and many other films. A very ancient monumental fort. I just want to say one thing. You need to make sure you are fit and strong, because you have to climb up all the way to the highest point which is enough to make anyone with a weak stamina to see spots before their eyes.

Nehru Zoological Park: This is a picnic spot on weekends to a large population. A large variety of animals call this place their home. Definitely takes an entire day to go around this park by foot. Though they have a 20 minute train ride within the zoo to cover the main areas quickly, the train trip will give you many no-shows since the animals do not just sit near the fence and wait for you to come by.

Hussain Saagar lake, Lumbini Park, NTR gardens and memorial: All these are located in the same locality. The lumbini park and the NTR gardens are suitable for a fine evening stroll with games for indulging and you can go for boating at the Hussain Saagar lake which separates the twin cities, Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

Ramoji Film City: I haven’t been here yet. But I have heard a lot about it and so would you have. I am planning to visit this integration of studios soon. 🙂 Of what I have heard, it is a vast empire of film studios that requires a lot of walking on your part.

Sudha cars: This is little tit-bit I add for those who are in love with cars and mechanical engineering. Holding the guiness records, Sudha cars has the world’s tallest cycle. And the museum exhibits wacky cars of all kinds. I will name a few for provoking your interest. Shivling car, Computer car, Bed car, Golf ball car, Cricket bat car, Cricket ball car, Boot car, Fountain pen bike, Snooker table car, Lotus car and so on. You name it, they have a car in that model. Really awesome models and I feel Mr.Sudhakar, who is the reason behind all these cars, is a very deserving candidate for the guiness record. All these cars in working condition and a CD of the demonstration is also available for you to believe it.

There! I have listed all the spots that I know. And I am counting on Spaceman, Chandana, Sumitra and other Hyderabad waalas to add those that I missed.

This city is worth a visit for everyone 🙂 Do come here at least once in your life on vacation 🙂

P.S: Sorry for the long post, but the city deserved it. Next post will be on people and language 🙂

Until later 🙂

Memories from Madhapur || Places-1

February 12, 2012 / / 10 Comments

Pre-Script: The series about Hyderabad starting with this post should have ideally been named “Memories from Hyderabad” but I liked “Memories from Madhapur” better and Madhapur is where everything started for me. 🙂 This is sort of just an intro post to the series.

This series of post is dedicated to the city that is Hyderabad. A city that turned from a nightmare to an eye-opener for me. Long back, I remember my blogger buddy, Sumitra asking me to write more about Hyderabad and I feel now is the time for it.

Image Source: http://www.mapsofindia.com

I must give a disclaimer to all of you that I am not much of a roaming person and hence I cannot give extensive travel experiences giving exhaustive descriptions about the city, but I am going to give it from my life’s perspective. A perspective which will tell you how the city grew upon a person who didn’t want to enter it in the first place and now she will be more than happy to live her rest of her life in that city (Sadly, as I grew fond of the city, situations made sure that I have to take measures to move out. Murphy’s law!). Also, I am going to write about whatever I know about the city and experts please correct me if I am wrong and add to it if I missed anything, which I am sure I am bound to. Now that the disclaimer is over and I am in the safe zone, here is Hyderabad through my eyes.

When I first stepped out of the Charminar Express at Nampally Station, all I had in my eyes and heart was fear. I did not know enough Telugu to manage. I knew Hindi but had lost touch of it long back. So, with a few recollected Hindi words and no arranged place of accommodation, I set out to start my life at Hyderabad.

With the help of a kind friend, I soon found out my office where I was supposed to report and after a lot of hassles, I settled in the company guest house to wait until some of my friends to arrive to report at Hyderabad. My company guest house was in the outskirts and the locality was known as Lambadi Tanda or at least that’s what was on the address given to me. Even the auto drivers looked at me weirdly when I wanted a ride to Lambadi Tanda. The word felt like a swear word on my tongue. Surely enough, all the other places felt weird-Kothaguda, Kondapur, Madhapur, Panjagutta, Lakdikapool(I had trouble pronouncing this;For a while I was calling it Ladki ka pool 😉 ) and the like.

With more friends arriving and finding a hostel in Madhapur, I settled in. That was when I fell in love with the place. Madhapur is by far the best place to live in if you want a reasonably affordable hostel with good facilities and your office is in Hi-Tech city. You can get almost everything within walk-able reach. The place was suitable in every way for a corporate’s life. If you prefer living in houses and not hostels, that would be a slight disadvantage. This is because houses with 1 single room that is just as big as Harry Potter’s cupboard, with a kitchen and washroom of the same size will cost you 8000 rupees per month. For a decent flat, you might want to make your budget, a 5 digit number. The best option of accommodation for people who want a cheaper yet comfortable place is a hostel or sharing a 3 BHK with 5 other friends.

Another area which is similar to Madhapur in life style and other aspects is Kondapur. The same rules of accommodation apply here too. Jubilee hills, Banjara Hills are areas where you can hit a higher note of living standards and prices too sky-rocket at the same rate. As for the nature of these localities, Banjara hills is a quieter residential area while the others always bustle with crowds until late night. The fashion showrooms in the Jubilee hills locality are awesome with a wide collection range. However, if you are a typical street shopper, you need to catch the bus to Koti or Ameerpet where after a day’s shopping you will feel you still have not managed to quench your shopping thirst.

With this, I pause. People who live in Hyderabad, please do chip in, in the comments section, about your first places in Hyderabad. And readers, I need your support for continuing this series. So, please let me know your thoughts.

Until later 🙂

P.S: I wanted to cover to the sight-seeing places too in this post, but the length of the post went beyond bearable limits. So I had to postpone the tourist spots for the sequel.

Here is to you..

February 6, 2012 / / 16 Comments

I have been awarded The Versatile blogger by Smita. For a moment I was literally like :-O. No amount of words could explain my expression. My mind caught up a few minutes later and started its jubilant celebration. So after excessive appropriate amounts of grinning, jumping on the bed, running around the room and punching the air, here I am to thank the lovely girl who gave it to me and to pass it on to other versatile bloggers.

Thanks a ton Smita,

Your award has made my day! Having been in a low tide, nothing has managed to cheer me up for a while now. You achieved it with this award. There are not enough words to convey how much this means to me. Being the first award and all 🙂 So I am just ending it up with a thank you.

Now let me get to work with the rules that come with this award:

  • Nominate 15 Fellow Bloggers.
  • Inform the Bloggers of their nomination.
  • Share 7 random things about yourself.
  • Thank the Blogger who nominated you.
  • Add the Versatile Blog Award picture to your blog post.

Here are the nominations and the explanations (I have done it slightly off the track). Dear bloggers, if you have received this award already, you can pass it on to 1 other blogger who would have to follow the entire process and keep the chain going.

Sumitra: Simple and subtle, yet Sumi manages to reach my heart with every post of hers. She is a role-model figure for me in blogger world. I am really happy to award her the versatile blogger award.

Khushboo Wadhwani: More popularly known as Paanipuri Lover, this girl has kept me awestruck many a times with her posts brimming with energy.

Atrocious Scribblings: As atrocious as his scribblings may be, this guy gives me a feeling that he is one of the few sane-minded guys out there. I don’t know what makes me say it, but that’s what I think of him.

DIGS: This dragon colors not only her life purple, but all her buddies’ lives too. 🙂 Daring is the word that comes to my mind when I think of her.

PeeVee: Priyanka is one of the bloggers whose archives I will dig again and again and read every single post with the same thrill when I read them the first time. Though she has been awarded already with this award, I want to do justice to the award by giving it to her.

Spaceman Spiff: Again, the same goes to Spaceman. She had already been given the award by a few bloggers. Yet, if I miss out Spaceman, it would be doing the award a great injustice. Spaceman Spiff is the blogger who made me realize what blogging actually means.

Vinati: Mirage as she is, she often comes up with short posts that keep me pondering for a while.I have tried reading between her lines and have come up with beautiful interpretations of my own apart from what is read generally. Shortly to say, Vi makes me think 🙂

Kalpak: I seriously contemplated skipping Kalpak for this award 😛 The reason is he rocks in humor and hence every post of his will overflow with his humor sense. But having read a few serious posts of him here and there, I know what an awesome blogger he is. I request him to accept this award 😛

Nags: Nags’ posts have always been a pleasant read for me. I learnt what a Vignette is from her and I should say she writes the most awesome Vignettes. I wish she could write more often.

Vijitha: Vijitha’s blog is like the book that I want to read forever. Her blog talks to me in a way that no other blog does. I wish she too could write more often.

I wanted to end it with 10 bloggers since the blogs to which I am an audience are limited due to my limited time and resolution not to over-indulge, but I thought of a different way. As for the last 5 people, they are no longer regular bloggers. Once agile, they have gone their own paths and have not written anything much recently. I am exempting them from having to follow the rules of this award, but they can do the process if they wish. They are  the first of a few bloggers I ever read. I remember awaiting their posts so eagerly amidst final-year project, reviews and exams. I cannot wish more that they find the time, energy and motivation to write again and more.

Ashwin: He still posts interesting things in his life. I have been a silent admirer of his posts all my college days. Thinking back, I do not know why I never commented on his blog though I loved every one of his posts.

Siddharth: Incessantly insane guy that he is, he started blogging just to make use of his excessive free time. He called himself an amateur blogger, but no one could hardly believe it. Right from the first post to the last one he wrote, he simply rocked. His about-me page is the most creative self-intro I have ever seen. He was an instant hit for he had a knack for hitting up on controversial topics and write on them as if he owned them. He robbed the sleep of many Sachin fans with his “Sachin is God and I am an Atheist” claim. Simply to say, I have never read another blog like his.

Poorni: Poorni’s blog is a private one that is a version 2.0 of her diary. She is an awesome writer and I have read one particular post of her more than 5 times. I wish she could write a public blog for the talent she has, but everyone has their own choices, don’t they? 😉

Abinaya: None plays so well with the words as Abi does. One of the few who made me think beyond simple narration.

Vineeth: I owe Vineeth a big one since I chanced upon Spaceman Spiff’s blog through his. And that was the beginning of a new opening. His unabridged version of life gives you a colorful cocktail of this and that.

As for the 7 random things about me:

1. I wish I would become a worthy writer.

2. I have a tendency of over-indulgence which over the years, I have reduced a bit but I still have a long way to go.

3. I love puppies but I refuse to go near them since they scare my wits out of me.

4. I see God in helping hands than in decorated temples.

5. I have a very different interpretation of worldly things which is hard to put in words.

6. I love appreciation.

7. I am a person whom many misunderstand, underestimate, overestimate. Only a few get me for what I am and accept me as such.

Until later 🙂

P.S: Since Sumitra suggested that I write more of Hyderabad, I am thinking of writing a short series about Hyderabad life which will cover a little of the vast city based on how I know it. What do you think about it? Will you be interested?

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