Meeraa number aayeegaa!!!!!

Life has not been too rosy for the past one month, One post in the entire month in my blog reflects how crunched I was with work, I had to face some critical moments to finish my projects on bang, every thing got screwed up because of some, not so proper management strategies adopted, being the type of management guy, as I always aspired to be, I made a peep in corner analysis of every thing, and how it all went wrong, one of my projects was in jeopardy!!!! and it was sheer hard work conjunct with smart work, we dug ourselves out from the buried coffin. I had many sleepless nights, my dreams in those few hours when I had a nap were full of those perilous code and those very professional ways of intimidations of escalations in those chains of mails. I feel much more comfortable now, after that hectic work when I had to work for 16 hours a day, I am a happy man now. It is our basic nature to seek happiness. Do we get it? When we look around we find ourselves surrounded by suffering. We feel uneasy; that we are perched on an island of some happiness, surrounded on all sides by deep and dark waters of unhappiness. Is happiness just a mirage? The fact is that there is neither undiluted happiness, nor unabated unhappiness. Life is both. However, the nature of pain is such that it appears that the unhappy phase of life is interminably long. I was traveling through this path all these one month I guess!! Never in my life did I feel the fear of being lost, I was in abjection at a stage when I was blamed for all the mistakes and decisions taken by managers, for I was the sole person handling the project. When we are faced with unhappy situations, we may derive some comfort by observing and learning from Nature. A cold and dark night yields to the refreshing morning sun, with its soothing rays of warmth, radiating light dispelling darkness. Every thing I am telling seems to be out of box I know!!! But this is what is spilling from my heart, and what I have learnt. After every chilly winter, there comes the spring, bringing warmth, hope and cheer. At the end of a dark, long tunnel, there is light. Happiness is a state of mind, which keeps us in a state of well-being. Several important ingredients go to make the 'commodity' known as happiness. But this precious commodity is simply not available in a departmental store. Its a feeling again. I had no minds to remember the Birthdays of my friends also, I forgot to wish a couple of my friends on their birthdays, could not watch any of my favourite cricket matches on TV...I wish I would never again be in such a situation again...Touchwood!!!! Lesson of the period “We do not gain anything by fretting or fuming over things over which we have no control whatsoever. We only become unhappy in the process. Accept gracefully the things given to us, the good or bad, and abjectly surrender to the dictates of destiny, your time arrives and you have fun unlimited” . …Sorry if you read the entire post, I promise to post something more interesting next!!!! :)

Frozen Thoughts .......

Recently my team mate Vidya kept asking me, why do I always shoot up lines about Hyderabad?, and why do I pay visits to the city from a place 600 miles away (Bangalore Ofcourse!!!!!) very often?. She, beeing a Kannadigaa, is obviously fond of her own capital Bangalore, and even was betting me on counting more fun filled places to hang out in Bangalore than in Hyderabad. Well !!! You know who would win, yup, she was no way near, when the list of places drifted from my mouth. This post is for all those Hyderabadis who are mad about the City , and Of course for them who are not, but someday would surely want to fall in love with it !!!!!
It is anyway the haven of all those normal Hyderabadi specials - Pearls, Biryani, Irani Chai, Attars, RamojiFilmCity, Chudi Bazaar, Charminar, Golconda etc which any normal person who is in the city for a couple of years would be aware of. I do not dispute their prominence to any visitor, but there are a certain places where you have to go for a life time experience!!! As a true Hyderabad kaa Miyaa- who has been in there, for most of his past 23 years - these things hold scant importance, if any (except the Biryani at Paradise and Bavargi, and The Chai in Blue Sea. God!!! I would want them even minutes, before I die).
So I compiled my own list of things to do in Hyderabad excluding the routines. I am aiming for max points in the Bulls eye, lets see how many can I come up with.
Eat Street: Sitting beside the Hussain Sagar, with cool breeze caressing you, and a multitude of eating options to choose from; for me this is the best place in Hyderabad. Get down from the MMTS at Necklace Road Station, cross the road and enjoy the food with a view. lolling around in the gardens next to eat street is actually more fun than eat street itself. Rama’s Birthday which we celebrated in that midnight twilight on the TankBund is a life time memory.
Durgam Cheruvu: Also known as the Secret Lake - this lake tucked away in the depths of Madhapur provides tranquility amidst the multi-billion dollar transactions going on a stone’s throw away. An advice: do not visit in evening; the road adjacent to it will be packed with vehicles. Best time to visit Durgam Cheruvu is late night. And do not miss the Tea from the cart that stands opposite Cyber Gateway. Believe me the water slide is worth it, try it and you would not want to come out from the peddling sauce boats....
The "Best Book sellers" in Abids is truly the Best one in the entire city. This has been my favorite from my bachpan, there is no book that you can't find in this store, that too at very low prices. Tilak Road on Sunday or M.R. Book Stores at Punjagutta or Frankfurt Book Store near Odyssey all come under the same sect, The books you would find at these obscure second hand bookshops defy imagination. On Sundays, the entire Tilak Road, near Abids, is swarmed with vendors selling books - no categorization of books, keep searching through them till you get tired or find some gem tucked underneath. Generally an armful of books would cost hardly 100 bucks. M.R. Book Stores & Frankfurt Book Store are bigger second hand book shops, books are categorized properly and are a tad expensive then the Tilak Road books - but here too the sheer number of books is mind-boggling.
Drive around KBR National Park: Do this once and I am sure you would wish for one more drive. The minute you enter the roads surrounding KBR National Park, you can feel a marked drop in temperature. The roads curve around the National Park, with varying degrees of slopes. It is a roller-coaster drive with you being in control all the time. Again the same advice - best time to visit is late night. Do not go on these roads in evening unless you want to be swathed in dust and smoke.
Ice Cream at Mozamjahi Market: Ahead of Nampally, you would find Mozamjahi Market. Look for Karachi Bakery (the taste of Fruit Biscuits of Karachi Bakery cannot be described - you have got to taste it), opposite Karachi Bakery; you can easily find two ice cream shops housed in a building of the 19th century architecture. I do not remember the names of the ice cream shops, but I can still feel the taste tingling my tongue. I have never had better ice cream, at a cheaper price. No ice cream costs more then 15 bucks and at 15 bucks you get three slices of different flavors along with fresh fruits and jelly - Tutty Fruity is simply lip smacking. Another favorite has been the Kulfi - I think it costs 8 rupees.
The Whisper Valley: You have to be in Hyderabad at this place on any Diwali night, you would be surely jumping and thumping. I bet you can't restrain the joy silently with out those wows and wooos!!!!!!
My thoughts are still swirling around a lot of other places ..... But these were the Best, that anyone and everyone who has been to Hyd would die a heart for .....