6 Reasons why you MAY tour Hyderabad - Must See places / To Do's.

This is a compilation of the places of interest / things that Hyderabad alone has in the whole of India which should definitely make your visit memorable and worthwhile.

#1. Dialogue in the Dark

Ever wondered what it would be like to be in an exhibition in complete darkness? I know this may have been in some of your nightmares but imagine what it would be to feel the exhibits with all your other senses apart from your eye sight. This is the magic a.k.a the difference this exhibition offers as normal exhibitions present a wide range of things we can SEE.

You are guided through this exhibition by a visually impaired (blind) person. You would be taken to different places like parks / restaurants / boat ride etc., all in pitch darkness led by this guide of yours.

This is an exhibition and the only one of its sorts in the whole of World and it was started by a really empathetic person named Andreas Heinecke.


Location : InOrbit Mall, Hitech city,Hyderbad

In India, this exhibition is only in Hyderabad.

Check out what wiki has to say on this :- wiki/Dialogue_in_the_Dark

#2. Ramoji Film City

This place has a Guinness World record to its name.Come'on how many times do you get to see places that hold a World record ? ..  In India, it is pretty rare ! ( Here you can find people who do things that don't really require any talent / effort like "Growing Beard" or "Longest Nails" with World Records ) However in this case, Guinness World Records certifies Ramoji Film City as The World's largest Film Studio Complex

For all those who are always amazed by the magic of celluloid / cinematography, this is the ideal place to visit once in a lifetime.There are/has been people who have been able to touch and inspire millions of people through the magic of cinema.For them Cinema is more than an entertainment avenue, it is an Art, a Musical instrument whose tones have to be played to the right tone with utmost perfection to produce the wonderful song named Cinema.

As a tribute to such people Mr.Ramoji ( and of course as a business venture ;) ) started the cinema studio complex "Ramoji Film City"

Location : Outskirts of Hyderabad.Suggest to hire a Cab to reach this place.

#3. Famous Ice Cream

Ice Cream is one delicacy that attracts people of all age groups.Here in Hyderabad you can taste Natural Hand made Ice creams. Believe me when I say the taste is Unique and very different from the normal ice creams we eat.With a plethora of varieties ( depending on season ) ranging from Chickoo / Mango / Seetaphal etc these Ice creams are worth a try.These are natural flavors ( not artificial ) and believe me the value for money is the best you can find in the whole country.


Location : Mozamjahi market (Reach there and ask anyone, they'll tell you the place ;) )

#4. Chudi bazaar - near char Minar

This place is a strict No-No for Men and men who want to stop their wives from spending on trivial jewellery.However this palce is pretty much similar to chandinin chowk except that this place is mainly  for Bangles. You would be amazed by the varieties of bangles they have to offer.For Women this is one place you should not miss out when you visit hyderabad.

Location : Near Char Minar

#5. Maula Ali .. a climb on the rocks ! 

This one is STRICTLY for people who love trekking .. Hyderabad landscape is symbolised by its rugged rocks and lack of green terrian which is "SO TYPICAL" of eastern ghats (to speak of ) ... You would get really good rocks for boulder-ing / trekking / rappelling. GHAC ( Greater Hyderabad Adventure Clubs - http://meetup.ghac.in/ ) frequently organizes trips. Maula Ali is not the only place ..  you may take good advice from GHAC .. depending on what spots they organize.

Location : Maula Ali in Google Maps

#6.Prasads IMAX -  Most Popular Imax Theatre in the World.

Want to watch 3D movies in  screens 10 times the size of Normal theater screen ? Well, don't miss this chance to watch a good movie in one of the most Popular (based on number of people) IMAX theater in the world - Which is mostly because of the Indian Populace ;). Also the IMAX theatres are currently present only in 4 cities across India.

Location : IMAX (Prasadz) Theatre Website

Most Popular IMAX Theatre in the World.

Courtesy :  http://gizmodo.com/5273201/the-seven-imax-wonders-of-the-world

Disclaimer : This listing does not include places like Char Minar, Pearls shopping  and foods like Hyderabad-i biriyani which are among-st most commonly associated things that pop up when Hyderabad is spelled out to any Indian.

The moments that took my breath away !

Life is not about the number of breaths you take ... but its that bag of moments that take your breath away..

                                                                                                           - Anonymous

A beautiful worded thought which touches me every time I read it. Coming to think of it , I was wondering about those moments that had taken my breath away and really  touched me .. those moments that I would love to relive very much.

Its not a long list .. less considering the fact that it has been 23 long years since i've been here ...  but alas I shall pen down some of them ... 

These are the moments / the events that changed me , made me , will define who  I will be and want to be ...Its only first glimpse of what is to become of me.

Date : Some Day in 2002. Doha,Qatar :  The First time I spoke to a Gathering : First public speaking Experience 

It was way back in 2002 , when some one showed the first sign of faith in you , something which you yourself never had. I was in standard 8  and I was a very dull , under performing kid who hated life so much and didn't feel it was something to celebrate ; rather a curse to be borne out with time. When that someone showed faith, even the slightest drip of it .. made me feel something must have been there in me .. (Alas with time I realized I was a NORMAL guy in every sense .. nothing very very special .. ;) ) Well that breath of faith was Life changing.. He said I could talk to people and express what I feel without fear. Thus, I spoke for the first time "INTO" a mike in the morning assembly. Though Sir had created the entire speech ...  took print out for me and made me read it out literally ...  I still remember that day ..  It was unbelievable that I could do it .. Years later the most important thing I have with me is my ability to talk and present myself .. that has won me success in my job and landed me with a job in the first place. A "Teacher" like him is the blessing every student ought to get and I was so happy to have met someone so Insightful, someone who knew how to connect with students and awaken the gift each of us have. His name is "J.D.Sing" and he was from Gorakhpur in UP,India.

Teachers have a great role in shaping us, it is the reason we like some subjects even to this day and some we hate to the core. In many cases, it is also the reason for what we chose as our career path (Which was accidental in my case, I shall get to it some other day ;) ). I must say that teaching is a great profession, one of the best which connects with the future. But alas I am always saddened to see teaching is prioritized to the lowest berth every time in our society. In engineering colleges, I always end up seeing people choosing teaching as the last resort to JUST have a job and not out of the passion to impart knowledge. In a country like India where engineering colleges have cropped up in every nuke and corner and has become a source for converting the so called "BLACK" into "WHITE" (Money of course ;) )and not for producing quality engineers who can service the country, it is only a distant dream we all can hope for, where in people teach what they know and with passion. Private colleges to this matter are worse where the teachers have no clue as to what they are teaching and take vengeance against students who question their MUGGED up theories by cutting down on their internal session marks. In the process they are killing the imaginative power and making the students feel "Engineering is for MUGGING UP".

15 Dec 2005 : Doha, Qatar 

The most memorable moment  was " When she said Yes " not literally but when she asked if may be some day I would like to marry her. That moment took my breath away .. I was blown away. The entire feeling was so different .. everything seemed so nice .. apparently it was my brothers b'day so people did not much mistake me as a screwed up ass as I was smiling all through out !!. Some emotions could be expressed but this could never be, to this date.

I'd always feel her around me even though she was far away from me physically. By just listening to her voice I could know what she felt ..  I was / am totally mad about her.

Someone who made me believe in GOD and changed my life forever.

30 Dec 2011 : Goa, India

If you want to party .. GOA is the place and you ought to be there during New Year's eve. For some time I even doubted if this place was part of our conservative India. I am not sure if people were from some other county or so but this place was full of Madness. It was fun | fun and party all through the day. Luckily I had with me an equally fun loving friend "Rameez". We partied all night and slept on the beach ....Woke up @ 6 in the morning shivering to the cold breeze that was swarming over the area...What a day it was and what a life people had. It was if only fun loving people were allowed in the city.

These are some of the best moments I had till date. Will pen down the rest soon...

Connecting the DOTS

Does it often happen  that you are not sure what to follow ... the sheer logic that keeps popping up in your mind or the clear inclination of your heart ...  you know for sure that you are being pulled to that side where your heart is ..... Nevertheless, I get into that dilemma pretty often and to be honest I am not very happy about it !

Recently I was reading the book “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson and he happened to point out the same things ... the dilemma is always there as if it is never ending .... following your heart may not give you your desired results now , but when you look back at it after  a long time.. I mean after a really long time ... the dots and the picture formed after connecting them would be very clear. I am not sure if I have seen any one in a while who does that >> “following your passion above the common obvious mundane logic”....I have not seen myself do that either..... But is it really worth taking the risk ? Not sure ..but then what are we really even sure about in life. We are not even sure if we will live the very next second of our life...but yet we tend to behave as though we have a whole century to live... I see people taking LIC policies that would pay them crores’ of rupees after 50 years .... I was pretty much perplexed with that idea actually....how sure are you to even live that long that you would tend to invest your hard earned money on some time frame which is so far away from the near future.

Well  leaving aside that , following your heart currently in OUR system definitely affects a whole lot of people... mainly parents and the problem that comes along about how scared they are and how much worried they get ... not that they would not be otherwise. But the comfort zone of everyone is disturbed....and as Indians are famed for...NOTHING OUTSIDE COMFORT ZONE ... the only standalone mantra they have stuck to for years together and anyone who even dreams of one is branded as a coward .. a stupid and so on....

Luckily a couple of days back , I happened to meet a man who was at his 40's and was telling me his tale of life. Got married at the age of 23 with just 1000 rupees in his pocket and no job in hand. He said he was scared but he did take those steps with courage and now when he looks back ; it was the best decision he ever made in his life ... he has the love of his life by his side and he has fathered 2 children with her. I could see in his eyes that looking back now, after 17 years the DOTS do form a beautiful picture. He is able to connect the dots of his past to form a wonderful memory.


I too had a chance to experience a similar but very less inspirational setting. I had decided to head to Goa for celebrating New Year. Every single friend of mine ( family apart - did not tell them ... it was better that way ) persuaded me not to. Reason - " I was going on bike all alone to Goa ".Strangely I got the courage from somewhere as this was one of the craziest things that I had wanted to do since long  - Take my Yamaha for a tough ride. Luckily I returned back safe ;)  from the journey after clocking 1600km on the odometer. Looking back at it (18 months ago) this was one of the best and the most memorable thing that I had done in the year 2011.The dots and oppositions from people seemed very tough then but now looking back the dots are no more there ... they are part of a bigger and more vibrant picture which I cherish to this moment to the fullest!


Lastly , the followingspeech by Steve Jobs was inspirational then and even now !

Pace of a Runner's Mind

......How a 90kg Fat Guy ran 4,000 metres ......

This blog is about my First run .. the Spirit of Wipro Run .. 4k Run

The day started as usual until  I reached Office and Opened my Wipro mailbox to find a community mailer stating about a run named as SPIRIT OF WIPRO RUN  (SOW) ... like any other Wipro'ite I too was curious to find out what this Run was all about.I immediately inquired to my colleagues and they informed me about this annual Run that Wipro organizes for its employees ,  family and friends.

Leaving apart the formal details about the Run .. I happened to glance upon the shorter version of the Run .. which stated that the total run length would be 4,000 metres ..  I just blinked my eyes twice just to be certain ....and it was beyond doubt that the run was indeed a 4k Run ....my Mind just immediately paced downhill wondering if I could ever even run 1k forget about 4k.I looked at the big flab of flesh that had formed around my stomach ...that was a sitting example of my years of hard labor and struggle ...  all the thoughtless things I had consumed ... thanks to all the junk food .... ultimately treating my stomach and body as a Garbage .. to be precise even worse ....which is  usually refereed to by my friends as TYRE / POT STOMACH .... what ever the name be .. i felt bad that i could not even dream about such a run.But a day or 2 later ... i thought why NOT? my mind paced uphill and i decided come what may .. it is my goal to complete the 4k Run.

The first few days since i decided to do the run was filled with complete doubt , fear , inhibitions and total lack of self confidence.Then i discussed this with my Gym instructor who advised me that it was indeed possible.Thanks to google it ultimately  reaffirmed my faith  when i read about a women who ran a marathon after training for it day & night by only eating McDonalds.For the first time I felt happy that eating junk fast food was not bad after all.

Leaving that apart , a training  session was scheduled by Wipro with well known coaches brought in from the best training institutes in the city.... but I was too lazy to travel the 10km's from my home to the training spot.So i decided to take it up myself.First time a sense of responsibility to do and complete something I have not done in my whole life aroused in me.I practiced very hard on tread mill and on the near by grounds to get a feel of the D day.But alas the D day experience was totally different. The fact that I was a slow and steady runner meant more time was taken up in completing the run.I practiced to hit 2km in an average of 45 minutes.But still this was only half the distance of the run and I was sweating and gasping for breath every time I tried to hit 3k.My perseverance level was put to test and as obvious i was failing miserably.The D-day were getting closer and it just added to my woes.Finally I was forced to take up the "What the F*** attitude ??" .. and the day before the D day I had managed to run just 3.25km.As per my new found attitude I decided to take it cool and gave a middle finger to the Nishan who was scared and had loads of inhibitions about the run.


On the D day I woke up late .. just late enough to miss the counter closure time that distributed the orange Spirit of Wipro Run T-shirts.However I was able to convince a co ordinator that I was on time and she ultimately managed to give me the T at the end of the race as she had other duties to attend to now.But I was totally thrilled about the idea as the run was more important to me than the T shirt.

At the start of the Run .... Wipro 'iites in Action

The Run started with a nadaswaram team playing their usual tunes (Which obviously was very very weird Idea  and may have been wipro's attempt at cost cutting !!!) .. Leaving apart the terrible sophomore before the start ... the roads were totally blocked with all armed policemen covering us from either sides .... as though we were a huge entourage of PM ... there were ambulance on stand by in case anyone screwed up ....the run started and I decided to maintain my normal course irrespective of the fact that most of the people along with me ran as though they were in a 100 meter dash.I decided to just let go of those people whom I found later.... panting and gasping for water.However I managed to finish the run in style.My fears and inhibitions had f***'d off by the time I reached the end and I easily managed to cover the 4k run .. thanks to the over enthusiastic crowd who made me feel the run was shorter than expected.

And finally I looked at myself with a sense of satisfaction...!

The whole experience was a  beautiful memory  !

Once I had covered 2km ..  no one was there...Every one was behind !

Post the run ..  a chill out  Session!!

Successful / Jubiliant ME

Our campus !

!! It is not always wise to be wise !!!

Standing your Ground when the world is UP in arms against you !

Standing by your convictions .. standing by what you believe in when the whole world turns against you ...  the responsibility to take ownership of the consequences ... and ultimately you understand that you are the master of your own world.Of course it is wise to take advice but ultimately the decision is yours and yours alone as GOD/NATURE/ONE POWER has given you this life  ..  it is your canvas where you paint the image called life ..... and celebrate it ...  no one knows what happens hereafter ..  it is only one thing that knocks your mind in the death bed ..  are you happy and content with the life you lived ??? It will just take only a second to realize that ..and only you know the answer to that .. only you ... The beauty persists only when you carve out your way on the murky road .. a road of uncertainties ...and then you learn the hard lessons of life .. most of them self taught and self observed ...

May we all be blessed by the power , wisdom and courage to do what will truly be inscribed in our canvas called LIFE.Let us not let fear and inhibitions stop us from touching the canvas.Being wise most of the times  ; sticking to the common road which is safe for sure but would not have your watermark.

Free flow of Nature .... Journey of a biker ...

The Corn plants were there....

They were always there waiting for the Sunshine ..waiting for the days to come.Little did they know that a biker was on his way from a far distant land, as crazy and as wanting to be as free as them.

When he saw them dance to the breeze..he could not go..but was pulled back to stay.. little nay did they know that he was embracing their callous attitude to the oncoming sea of gushing cold air.... he loved to see them dance ... move their flimsy yet strong body to every nuance of the wind.....happily celebrating beauty of life....Here I was seeing them dance and my odometer had just touched 300 thousand meters... even after I had been traveling for more than 5hours...

The biker thought that like the biker the corn plants too had a great life transforming journey so far..a journey in search of a difference .....A journey to experience the differences of life all alone ....the corn plants knew that their end was near and they were so sure about their end that they did not waste even a single day ... The biker wished if we Humans too thought and felt the same way !!!


All of the people passing by in their buses and cars just gazed at me mostly wondering what I was up to..Their obvious reasoning described me as Insane and foolish enough to stand there in that place and write,smile and enjoy the beauty of it... For a commoner passing by this was just a daily routine show .. a show which he rarely even recognizes even if it happens daily... a sight which he had gotten so used to in his life that he had forgotten what a breeze meant....for him it was another casual day of a not so splendid life....

....A Biker's Odyssey ...

 I was driving alone ... it was what I thought for a moment.Then with no time the thoughts breezed my mind that there were Stars too watching over me....I looked up and through my helmet shield I could see the Stars amidst the pitch darkness all around...I was happy to see Stars who stood out strongly and alone , brightly showing themselves without any fear.The fear was only human..as that of mine .... It never is an image of Nature .. Nature is so fearless and Strong..Like the huge trees that stood there when I raced past them,the wind that was blowing on to me without any fear and showing its full force....I was reminded of the might what we are surrounded by...We still have a lot to seek and  get inspired from our real mentor and guide ...."GOD" as some call as .... "Nature" some believe it to be ....."Existence of Evolution" defined by legends .....What ever the name may be, the beauty and strength with which it showed itself was palpable....And all along the pot holes along the roads kept reminding me that I was only a mere mortal and am part of a clan who are not very farsighted and who are riddled with fear and inhibitions.....That was when I woke up to reality.... That I was a traveler who was here to learn,unlearn, relearn the beauty of LIFE...

This was how my 1600km journey started !