For those who have been with me all along, I made some predictions of what I may see in Hyderabad before I got here. The results ... drum roll:
1-streets crowded with people and more people
Was not dissapointed; there were seas of people wherever I went.
2-streets that are very narrow with coarse gravel shoulders
I was sort of right. There where far more paved shoulders than I expected.
3-vehicles of every possible shape and size from as far back as the 1940's
Again, no let down here. The neatest vehicle I saw was a 4-door Ambassador that looked so British. I saw lots of cars but nothing as old as the 1952 Lada I saw in Ethiopia.
4- roadside stands packed to the rafters with just about every commodity one could ever think of wanting to buy
An understatement ... I am sure some of the stuff I saw in these shops had not been invented yet! Some were very quirky and a delight to behold.
5-a nice assortment of local brew that will please even the least discriminating (yes me Jake!) aficionados of beer
I only tasted Kingfisher as far as local beer goes. It was so boring (not for me) that Jakov would have cringed when he saw me drinking one.
6-colourful garb on the female units, a sight to behold
Every possible colour and then some. There was a wide assortment of native garb on the ladies and it was all so colourful and a sight to behold.
7-clouds of dust wafting throughout the city, reminiscent of the cumulonimbus variety ever-present my 9 months in Addis Ababa
Cough, cough, need I say more. Not as much dust in the air as Africa but still there.
8-a sea of little (and big hands) looking for as many rupee as ferenge
(what foreigners are called in many countries in Africa) can possibly
part with
Not as much street people as Africa, but they still beg at the traffic lights. One rickshaw driver opened the glass case in the roof of his unit, handed me Rs. 4 and motioned me to give to a lady beside the vehicle. The beggars do not have that look with the head slightly tilted to re-inforce the need for coin as they did in Addis.
9-an assortment of public transport vehicles of every possible shape
and size, carting around anything and everything that breathe
Ah yes, the buses. Every shape, size and packed or next to empty, nothing in between.
10-a dichotomy of hopelessly poor inhabitants and quite well off neighbouring individuals
Nothing like finding one of Addis' worst shanty towns in the shadow of the Sheraton Addis where rooms started at $250 USD. Still the obvious separation of wealth between the poorest and the richest.
No comments:
Post a Comment