Travelogue - I
Bangalore: 1, Hyderabad: 0
On the journey to Hongkong at Begumpet Airport, I was asked by an Yamrican:
“So, what do you do in Hyderabad?”
I am visiting family and friends.
“You know I have been to Bangalore and there is so much to do…and they call it the Garden city and there is so much greenery….but in Hyderabad, there are so many rocks. What does one do?”She went on about how she and her husband would go to the site where a factory was supposed to be built, and found quiet…but since the construction has begun and
“those people have started living, we don’t go there anymore”.
Interestingly, she lives in Banjara Hills (an upscale neighborhood, where all the ex-Chief Ministers and the riche and nouveau-riche live).
And so there it stands the score card: Bangalore: 1; Hyderabad: 0.
Sure, the city does not have the same ‘cosmo’ status as Bangalore, but then what happens to the Hyderabadi character of the city? Is it possible to keep the same character while fostering new modern avatars? As it is…the city appears to be changing FAST and morphing into a city that is unrecognizable…does having more Pubs and American-type establishments make a city more habitable, hip or cool? Interesting, how “those people” are the very ones who are paying the brunt for creating the “Cyberabad”!
1 comment:
You never told me when you were in Hyderabad and you were supposed to let me know when you will come to Bangalore and you never told me anything about that plan either...typical light le le chicha ishtyle :)
Us hyderabadis are proud of our rocks and are sad that a lot of the rocks in and around Hyderabad are vanishing (imagine a big stately rock that has been around from the time hyderabadis were leaving the trees and learning to walk upright being replaced by an ugly apartment complex which features granite-kitchen-tops built from the same rock…sigh!!)
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