a few months back, i went on a trip to hyderabad. you know how these trips usually are. theres an elaborate plan where everything, right from where we will sleep to what we will eat to what poses rinku and tinku shall give in ramoji city are decided. everyone is fretting for days in advance, about what toothbrush to carry, going over the daily usage list a million times. it would seem that going on a vacation is more hard work than getting through the daily grind! well this time was different. we just packed our bags, put it in a car, and went on a road trip.

theres nothing, absolutely nothing like driving down to a place. its just amazing to see how the soil changes colour, and how the dhoti's worn in maharashtra slowly unwind into lungi's as you head towards andra pradesh. plus, it was by the virtue of this road trip that we realized how chaotic hyderabad actually is, as far as traffic is concerned! its traffic is like a scene from one of those animated movies where everyone is going everywhere, but miraculously not banging into each other. by the end of it, you always get a feeling of getting out of an extremely nasty roller coaster.

while any guide will give you the synopsis of what all is worth seeing in hyderabad, or any other place for that matter, i think they may have gotten it all wrong. the real beauty of visiting a place isnt just visiting 1000 yr old monuments and new techno parks, punctuated with that occassioanl visit to the malls. all such visit yeilds, apart from of course the precious moments spent together, is a great, exotic looking photo album, a truck load of merchandise and the feeling that you seriously had a fun time. the beauty of visiting a new place lies in feeling it, breathing it.

while most people flocked golconda to see the light show, we jumped on the tricky stairs, listening to a old hyderabadi regale us with tales of the nawabs ( not most of which are necessarily known), while the city tour bus zipped from one location to another, we spent our time getting lost in hyderabad, so that we had visited every destination at least twice, but yet not seen it. yet, it was a lot more eye opening than the educational excursion, probably because we could walk on the streets of hyderabad like a hyderabadi. the driver, frustrated at being the best driver in the city, even drove like a hyderabadi.

even now, my best moments from that visit include our frustrated cries at being lost once again, at goin to the snow dome and hitting each other with snow till e had really bad colds, roaming around golconda, listening to that man tell us a story so old, and singing on one end of the wall so we could hear it from another. it was trying to find the atm and circling the roads that were basically constructed in circles, asking directions to people, who would then tell us to go straight, following them and landing on the same place again. it was visiting the hi tech city and seeing the mighty squires of corporate achievement. it was running from one destination to another, trying to see all that we could, then screaming in frustration after failing to, and then going out to try find food at unearthly hours as we had forgotten all about it. some of the best moments of that trip are standing in the hyderabad rain, viewing the lakes and the city, and getting lost on streets that we had seen a hundred times. after all thats the essence of travelling to a any place,loosing our way everytime, yet, ironically, in the end, finding ourselves. heres to more such real travelling. bon voyage.