I’m back in Belgium. But I still have to let you know how the last week in Hyderabad went.
On Sunday, I had arranged with Ramesh to visit him at home. Unfortunately, I got a text in the morning that his daughter was ill.We re-arranged to go the Shilparamam in the afternoon. That’s an arts & crafts village very close by to where we were staying.
His daughter didn’t get better soon though so he had to go to the doctor. That means I spend the day at the apartment. It turned out later that she was ill for the better part of that week (first-week-of-school-syndrome ?). So it’s good that Ramesh could spend time with her.
The time alone wasn’t wasted. It gave me time to relax some more, change the gas container (which was quite an adventure on it’s own), complete the blog and have some very long chats with my parents and family.
Monday evening, after work, we visited Shilparamam. Who’s we ? Colleagues from work who were interested to go. That’s great about the group there. If you ask something, they are quite enthusiastic to do things together.
At Shilparamam, you can not only buy crafts. There is more to do. We visited the Rural Museum and the sculpture garden before going to the craft stalls.
Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the stalls. But I did find some things there to take home.
Around 8, they dropped me off at the Red Fox hotel. The Belgians staying there had increased to 4. This was too much for the 3 bedroom apartment, so we went to Frederic’ hotel to see how it looked like. It was very nice ! Also the restaurant had a nice selection for our tummies.
The next day (Tuesday) Azmath and I were going to have dinner and then visit his place. He took me to the hotel next to our apartment, which is a very fancy one. We took the buffet which means that I got to taste a lot of different things. There was even Haleem. Both mutton and vegetarian. I took the opportunity to take the vegetarian one which was also quite nice. It was a very nice meal and chat with Azmath.
After dinner, we went to his place. It’s an hour drive even at that late hour. That’s why he recently started renting a room closer to work so he could skip from time to time on the commute.
The whole family (wife and his two daughters) were there to welcome me. There was a nice desert with fruits (mango puree, water melon, apple, …). Azmath’s daughters are 15 and 11, which was very nice to contrast with the other kids I had met so far. Especially his eldest daughter was quite talkative and spoke really good English. Later I came to understand more about the interests of the younger one. Both of them we also pretty tired since they stayed up quite past their normal bed time in order to entertain the visit. Thank you both for that effort and the nice time you offered me.
All in all, another nice evening where I got to see more about live in India.
The next day I was invited to Rakesh’s place. He’s the team manager and recently replaced Anindya. From talking to him, I have a good feeling.
He lives close by (quite a change) and originally comes from the North of India. He and his wife lived around or in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Not surprisingly then that the dinner contained several typical North India dishes.
His son was still awake when we arrived. Also his mother and father in law were there for a visit. Again an opportunity to see more of Indian family life 🙂
And now we’re Thursday. Hey, no visits this time 🙂 The other 3 Belgians were invited to a team outing. This means I had some time for myself which I spend getting the last shopping done and packing the suitcase. Also the last Skype chat with the family before heading back to Belgium. Packing the suitcase was a little challenge due to all the shopping I had done. Ramesh had also given fresh mango’s for Anne. He had promised them 7 years ago while visiting our place ! Quite a memory. Ramesh, this definitely fulfills your promise to her.
You can imagine that packing all this was a little puzzle. But I managed to solve it.
Friday was my turn for a team out. Or actually two of them. But first the special event at work. It seems that regularly they have a color day. On that day, they wear clothes in some specially selected colors. These colors have a meaning so it’s the moment to think about it. Since I hadn’t read my mails for quite a while, I was lucky that people told me about it beforehand: while and blue. Blue was no problem but no white in the closet. I also looked for it during my previous nights shopping but nothing in my size.
The best I could do, was the Kurta that Rakesh had given me on Wednesday. Rakesh also wore one. It was quite nice to wear one.
In the afternoon, Siva guided us to a special place for a special lunch at Dine Hill. They serve it in a huge platter where 4-5 people can sit at. It’s then the challenge to scoop enough of the food to your part and start eating. We were a bit more civilized but it’s still fun to do.
It was quite a drive to get there, so it gave me the opportunity to take some pictures of Indian life.
In the evening, we went bowling. That was fun. And to top things off, panipuri for dinner.
A memorable last evening !
Thanks all of you for a memorable stay !!!
