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| Shilparamam: mark of evolution |
This one was a lazy weekend and on my way back from a late morning errand, I whirled around Panjagutta to catch a quick bite at Chutney’s only to realize that the place was over flowing and the wait time was no more than half an hour, the problem that I’ve often noticed with the city is its inability to expand to the growing needs of the population. People have been pouring here from all parts of the world, though Hyderabad has been planned on expanding in area by a couple of factors - with the asia’s biggest airport in the development and the periphery of the city set to expand to the ORR (outer ring road), I can still see some scope for good entrepreneurism to cater to the need of expatriates. Oops I took you off track, so besides chutney’s I came across SUBWAY, the best alternative that almost anyone would find after being turned away from chutney’s.
After some intricate selection from the menu I managed to create a foot long sandwich and managed to select a beverage for myself - the lady at the counter was patient enough to assist me with the choice of the fillings and the assortments, I picked up my plate and started searching for a quite corner in the already buzzing and stuffed room, and I found none, I dared to disturb a foreign looking lady sitting calmly in one corner of the room, seeked her permission and had just begun to relish the sandwich before her husband was back with his tray full! At this point we exchanged few furtive glances and smiles, and then I broke the ice asking them where they were from, László told me that they hailed from Hungary and were close to spending almost an year in Hyderbad, I had some difficulty in pronouncing their names and they had some difficulty pronouncing mine. Munching our bites I was told that they had also been turned down by chutney’s, and they love Indian food the love for which had brought them from Hitech to Panjagutta, for them Hyd had been a home away from home, they were surprised with the hospitality of the place and a bigger surprise for them had been the awry sense of traffic, of which I could say nothing but nod my head like a spring :). László Vadkerti worked for an MNC which was using the services of a vendor company in India to expand their capacity and work on an offshoot project. Even after spending close to an year he had never attempted driving here, it was particularly amusing to hear that he had been explicity instructed not to attempt driving in India, I could not help but sit at the edge of my seat and listen to how amazed they had been with their driver’s ability to maneuver through the city traffic maze. They had also got got used to the local English accent and had begun to distinguish between Indian name genders!!
I tried explaining them the diversity of the Indian culture, language, food habits and weather - the taste of which they had already experienced to a certain extent, the couple had been an avid fearless vagabond. László and his wife had been on tour to numerous parts of India as and when they found time, the good thing about expats is that they are not hesitant in exploring even the oddest looking corner on the panorama of Indian landscape and hence he knew about the history and the region more than any one of us would know. They were kind enough to share the pictures of Hyderabad (covering Jayabheri, Taj Krishna, Taj Banjara, Shilparamam) and Jaipur, Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Goa here, they were yet to explore the Southern parts of India, we exchanged cards and bid farewell not before I invited them to visit my hometown Lucknow.
The meeting was eventful as it left me wondering upon how difficult it is for the expatriates to settle in a place like hyber-valley aka cyberabad aka hyderabad! Our place is evolving because the natives here are evolving, at times people have to adjust and at points the city has to and the tussle between the man and the mob has resulted into a neat slow, steady evolution of our city, I will keep this space updated on the various aspect which keeps this place evolving.
adios
Sandeep
