Way to go Bud!!!

One of my good Buddies, Chinnu(Pavan Arvapally) was a part of London to Paris cycle ride (over 300 miles), raising funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care along with his colleagues Colin, Emma and Tim from 10-14Th September.

Chinnu....

Below was the groups itinerary:

Day 1: London (Croydon) to Dover - 85 miles, followed by a ferry to Dieppe

Day 2: Dieppe to Lisieux - 88 miles

Day 3: Lisieux to Vernon - 72 miles

Day 4: Vernon to Paris (Eiffel Tower) - 65 miles

Chinnu, this is an amazing feat and a great gesture to show that you care for the world. Me and I am sure, all of our friends are very proud of you and your colleagues who crunched your way through to raise funds for the Marie Curie Cancer Care .

Chinnu's first reaction after reaching Eiffel Tower....

Project OldCity!

Location: Old City, Hyderabad

Objective: Eat Haleem at Pista House, Biryani at Shadab, Click pictures of Charminar and feel the true Hyderabadi culture in its full colour.

Team: Naveen and Me

Gear: Naveen's Canon 400D SLR with 18-55mm and 55-250mm IS lens

Mode of Transport: 2 Pulsars

26 September 2008 being the last Friday of festive month of Ramzan, we thought we will hit the roads of Old City and experience its rich culture first hand. So, I wrapped up work at 6.30 PM and started to KingKoti where Naveen was waiting for me at his Boss's house. I rushed through the heavy traffic taking the best possible route with less traffic and reached KingKoti in 45 minutes.

In 30 minutes we reached Madina and I was much surprised with the little crowd. Naveen told me not to be so happy and watch out for whats going to come. And in Couple of minutes I was speechless with the sight of road ahead. It was like the shops ate the roads! 80% of the road on the both sides was occupied with the stuff from the shops behind them and push trolleys with stuff(toys, bangles, clothes and what not).

One thing you should remember when you are driving in Old City is to squeeze into every inch of space you get and the most important rule, "There are no rules". Be prepared for autos and rickshaw's coming in the opposite direction on the same side of the road, Guys driving 2 wheelers with 3 people on it is a common sight and if you are lucky enough you also get to see 4 people on a 2 wheeler.

Also, you have to forget that your vehicle has a horn attached. We can see people walking in the middle of the road as if they are walking at their home. Don't try to honk at them as they might get pissed off as you might be disturbing their bargaining regime with the vendors spread out on the road. Basically this all comes from the traditional Hyderabadi laid back attitude and I was enjoying every moment of it.

Magnificent Charminar

While Naveen and me were navigating our bikes through the little spaces being thankful that we did not come by car, we found that Naveen's bike had a flat tyre. So we left his bike at a road side shop and we clicked our way to pista house on my bike. Had delicious Haleem, a plate each and clicked few pictures of beautiful Charminar Standing tall in its full glory. Even with hundreds of Pista House extension counters all over the city including the cafeterias of our offices, eating Haleem amidst the local crowd overlooking Charminar is amazing feeling.

We went back to the place we left Naveens bike after 40 minutes and we still see that the bike is not taken care of, again the Hyderabadi cool attitude comes in. We talked the boy through, got the tube replaced(Which the boy has to go to MoghulPura and get it on his bicycle).

A Closer look

Now we were fighting our way back out of the limitless chaos and pandemonium. It took us one hour to get back to Madina and when we decided to park in front of Shadab for Biryani, we could not find a foot of place to shove in our bikes in for a kilometer on either sides of it.

By now, the tiredness took over and we decided to skip biryani and settle for Ice Cream at Famous Ice Cream(Mashoor Ice Cream, its world famous ice cream center in Hyderabad :-)) at Mohamjahi Market. So, we stopped by at Famous Ice Cream and I gulped 3 flavours(Cheeku, Seetaphal and Mango) and Naveen one and a half. Its still the cheapest and best ice cream I ever ate at Rs.10 per 2 scoops(This used to be Rs.6 when I was in school.)

By then it was 11.20 PM, I had a nice sweet pan, Naveen and I parted and I started a 35 Kilometer journey to my home. Reached home by 12 midnight, had a hot water bath and hit the bed with Classic Rock playing on my Laptop.

Note: At the end of the day one feel good factor I had was seeing people of different cultures and religions together participating with their full heart and enjoying every moment of it. Keeping up Hyderabad's well known mixed cultural diversity and the way people of all religions participate in each others festivals together. I sincerely hope this goes on forever and pray that nothing should disrupt this peace and harmony.

Atlaaaaaaaaast!!!

After years of searching / cancelling / postponing today Technically, Legally, Physically, I became an owner of a flat in Hyderabad . :-)

Yeah, It will take another 2 months for the Apartment to get completed but for me, Mentally I feel more like a "Loaner" than an owner, with 50% of my monthly pay check going towards the home loan.

I would like to thank my friend Shankar, without whom this would be an impossible task for me and all my Friends and Family for their support.

Once upon a rainy day....

Prologue: Bheem and Sneha like each other. They used to study in a different city other than their home towns. A small story which would have happened when both of them where in Hyderabad.

Sneha: I got to get home by evening or else my dad is gonna freak out

Bheem: Oh come on....don't worry.

Sneha: Don't worry? you would know if you were in my situation

Bheem: Ahhh....ok..If you get on the bus at 4 PM at Imlibun Bus Stand, I am sure you will reach your town / home by 6.30 PM. So, do not worry.

####Once at the bus stand there were very few buses at that time with go to sneha's town and those which were there were too crowded for a girl to get in####

Sneha: Oh god what do we do now?

Bheem: Don't worry, we will check for the buses at Dilsuknagar Bus stand...

Sneha: What if there are no buses there also

Bheem: We will see then, you do not worry unnecessarily

Sneha: You are not going to listen to me anyway, so as you feel

#### Same situation at Dilsuknagar Bus stand too###

Sneha: $##$#$% $^%$^%$^&%^ #$^$##$

Bheem: Come on calm down, I will drive down Choutapall, its just 50Kms and I am sure you will get some bus there. Also if we find any bus on the way, we can stop it on the way and get in.

Sneha: Its already 5.30, I guess I am cooked in my dad's hands

Bheem: Hop in and lets not delay

####At last Bheem got sneha into bus at choutapall, told her not to worry and started driving back to his home####

While riding back, it rained cats and dogs and Bheem had nothing but a round neck tee with jeans and pair of Nike. The rain was so heavy that he could not even see whats 2 feet away on the highway. He took shelter under a huge tree which has a small goddess temple under it. Knowing the fact that lightning first strikes huge trees, he stays put with his complete body beating instead of his heart. After couple of hours rain subsided, and Bheem drove back to his friends and was very happy that he survived that day.

Epilogue: At that point both of them were not aware that, that was their last ride together. Presently, I guess bother are married to someone else and living happily where ever they are. The rainy night still haunts Bheem when ever he is in India on that highway and passes that huge tree with the temple.....

Hurray! My first photo in print...

This months(September 2008) Better Photography Magazine printed one of my pictures that I have taken at Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad. The photograph of two pelicans sitting back to back was included in an article "A Day at the Zoo":Ofcourse they took my permission before printing the picture. :-)

Below is the original picture:

:-)

Not for a person like me who is not much fluent(in reading) with hindi ......