Return to India - The Life

I awoke this morning to the sound of gentle rain on the patio. My colleague and I agreed to meet for breakfast at 9:00am and enjoyed the rain falling outside the hotel windows. My plate consisted of a Dosa accompanied by two chicken sausages, fresh fruit and a vasa with chutney. A vasa is doughnut shaped and made from potatoe. They appear to be fried and have a nice brown exterior. Dipped in chutney they are a great substitute for toast although considerably less healthy. The new Shamshabad airport opened last night and Begumpet closed its doors forever to the great consternation of a lot of Hyderabadis who believe both could have continued to run in parallel. The new airport, which we will fly out of on its fourth day of operation at 3:30am, is in a part of the city that is harder to reach. To read the papers it seems they didn't plan for better access roads and people are expecting a real mess for awhile. One of our colleagues told us to allow four hours for the trip from our hotel to the airport and check-in procedures. Hopefully he is wrong but we aren't sure what to think at this point. Perhaps there will be a bandh and we won't be able to leave at all.

The Party Whirl section of the Deccan Chronicle carried the title "Holi Fever Grips the City" this morning. The papers are full of reports on Holi with celebrities and tourists alike pictured in vivid purple and blue hues. The Taj Krishna hosted a huge Holi party and people played with color and each other long into the night. One politician was greeted at his home by a group of tribal villagers and he played Holi with them for awhile to the bemusement of his guards. Of course he encouraged them to vote for his party in the upcoming elections. Yesterday we saw several group of young people displaying their colors in convertibles and jeeps, the photo at the head of this article is one of them I shot out the back window of our cab. It looks like a lot of fun.

India is a huge place and its not possible to see everything. This trip I'm really just enjoying living in the country and experiencing the people and culture. We've managed a few historical outings and were planning to visit Golkonda Fort today but the rain started last night and hasn't stopped for 24 hours so it turned into a light shopping day and rest. It was interesting to walk through Hyderabad City Center and see the kinds of things typical Indians would put in their homes. Most of the refrigerators were very small by American standards, about half sized. They seem to cost about $400. Their selection of cell phones is better than ours. My colleague was severely tempted by an HTC phone that looked much like an iPhone but ran on Windows Mobile. We visited several handicraft shops and finished our shopping (again) and had a Thai lunch at the Taj Banjara. We're feeling less of a need to cram a lot of stuff into each day. Despite the incredible energy in Hyderabad I feel a sense of peace here that is rare in America. Perhaps its the kindness of the people, their openness to ideas and willingness to share. I love seeing roadside temples and covered fruit stands everywhere I go. I even enjoy the crazy reckless traffic. But whatever it is my sense of place is strong here and it feels like a second home.

This evening some friends came by and took us to Barbeque Nation which is much cooler than the name sounds. Its a lot like Korean BBQ at Blue Ginger in Bellevue. They put skewers of kabob on a grill at the table and you eat until you're stuffed for rs 430 (about $10.75). We had prawns, more prawns, more prawns, as well as mutton, chicken, veggies, fish and other things. Their pomegranate and passion fruit martinis were delicious. Toward the end we were all stuffed and our local colleagues insisted on adding Biryani. We laughed at them. Since they are always such great hosts we had decided that we would insist on paying the bill and I have to give my colleague a lot of credit. He talked to the manager while nobody was looking and when the bill was called for it came to us. Our local colleagues were literally reaching across the table trying to grab it out of his hand, it was the funniest moment I've had in weeks. Since they drove through heavy rainfall to bring us here is was only fair. That's life in India.

Thanks for listening