Hyderabad Hues

Shot (a little shakily) from a car window. I fell in love with the old architecture.

Oh yes, I did! Family holiday to Hyderabad happened, and it was so much fun, mainly because we (my parents, my sister and me) were all together. And because I don't have the patience (and admittedly, the time) to relate everything in loving detail, I give you, impressions in bullet points:

 

• Biryani at Cafe Bahar and Qubani ka Meetha (this apricot and date syrupy sweet dish, served cold. It sounds funny, but trust me, it grows on you. Mmmm...) and Dil Pasand (how cute, no?) and a lot of very comforting cups of Irani tea, which I was completely infatuated with. It's a wonder my clothes still fit.
• Hyderabad has loads of Bakeries at every corner, beautiful flower decorations outside of some shops (because it was Diwali), Telugu and hyderabadi-hindi (which, without a doubt, rocks), some very nice places to go to like a drive through the IT area of the city and Charminar, the Salar Jung Museum, although after a while you do start to get a little tired of looking at antiques. Although may be you wouldn't, Carolina Primavera, fan of antiques :)
• It also has some not-so-great places to go to like Snow World, which if you've ever seen real snow, I plead you to stay away from. I don't know if they've changed the way they are supposed to do things, but we did not enjoy being shoved into a line, given jackets and gloves, made to hand in our footwear and given gumboots (wet from the inside) to wear and what I very strongly suspect were used-socks (ewwwwwwwwww. eww,eww.), and then jostled into another room with ice (which seemed to be mixed with sand or something like that). Eh, I don't want to get into details about the crazed people who were throwing ice at every surface (including our camera). There were things to do of course, like some sliding thing, but it was so annoyingly crowded. Then they announced that there would be snowfall in two minutes. We left pronto, not wanting to get that weird sand-snow in our hair. It was okay, though. We did get a lot of laughs out of the whole thing.
• I love Pune a little more now, because Hyderabad has more honking and noise and traffic than Pune. Which I had not thought was possible. So yes, Pune-1.
• The Hyderabad airport is magnificent (although they do charge you this UDF Fee which is Rs.100 for domestic outbound passengers and Rs.800-something for international outbound. Not so nice). But yes, it is a vision of loveliness (as much as airports can be) and quite comfortable. 

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Impending birthday looming in the horizon of my mind (and calendar), and I have no plans. As I was telling my friend Unmesh, I have a very specific grudge against birthdays (I mean, my own) and he agreed (and bitched in his blog, here). But that's for later. 
And now I find my righteous fingers staring at me reproachfully (drumming themselves on the table. Heh), and I must devote typing-activity to other, more fist-eatingly boring work.

What did you do over the weekend?

 

Yours, 

The Cyniqueen

If my life were a pillow...

New source of merriment and distraction

If my life were a big white pillow, someone would be fluffing it right now. I can feel my life changing, ever so slightly, in the smallest little ways possible, but I like it. I'm growing (not horizontally any more, thank God for that), I'm evolving and it feels nice.

What else has evolved? Stupid Diwali cracker bombs, that's what. They've gotten louder, noisier, and show 60% increased chances of me turning into a serial killer (note: aforementioned figure may not be completely accurate). Yes, crackers can be fun (even though they cause pollution and all). Joyful even. But I seriously fail to comprehend how a eardrum-cracking sound can bring happiness into someone's life. How? I get the ones that look cool and colourful and fiery. But think about it, really, Mr.Pipsqueak who lives in my neighbourhood and finds some hidden pleasure in this bomb thing - your idea of fun is a loud noise? Really? Sad.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you a list of random things I bought in the last few days:

• A table fan. Which has these beautiful blue blades (Uh, huh. I alliterated the hell outta that) that look like a beautiful blue blur (aaaand, I just did it again) when the fan is switched on. The thing is that it took long to actually get to my house from the time I wanted it and it is something I have picked out entirely on my own, after sifting through catalogues and discussions with my mom about prices and features. Needless to say, I was constantly distracted on the first two days, and I kept toying with the regulator and the device that makes it rotate. Needless, also, to say, I must find better ways of occupying myself.
• A tea strainer to strain ant-infested honey. Yum yum :-/
• Two eyeliners - The company that used to make my favourite, favourite water-proof kajal has done that awful thing - stopped production. It is as if a rug has been pulled off from under my feet. My plan is not to panic and find a new, cheap and waterproof brand of kajal before my last stick of the old favourite runs out. Pity. Why does this always happen, just when you get comfortable with a product and begin to take its availability for granted, it sniggers sardonically and slinks quietly out of your life forever. Almost like some relationships. Sigh.
• 2 huge steel dabbas (with a bag of sugar inside each one) to give to the maids for Diwali, instead of a part of their Diwali bonus money. Which they vehemently rejected. Huh.

Anywho. Happy Diwali :)

The Cyniqueen.

P.S - Family holiday is going to happen, so yay!