Salam Hyderabad...

These are some reasons why I love this city:

1. Friends- it has truly been a college away from a college here, we are a gang of about 15 guys, we completely enjoy each other's company-I feel like I have rediscovered each one of them after college...more on each one of them in a seperate post:).
2. Roads- the first thing that strikes you on landing in Hyderabad are the amazing roads that connect the whole city (the unruly traffic running on it is a sad story, but we will ignore that for the moment). They are really wide and well-laid, making driving a great experience.
3. Eat Street-my favorite hang-out, a bunch of eateries just on the banks of Hussain Sagar Lake-a lake and food at one place-what more could your truly ask for?? A stroll along the lake is enough to cure the worst headache and releive the stress-the breeze here competes with that in the beaches in Chennai.
4. Cooking (ofcourse by JP and Bhoopesh)-the initial 6 months were horrible-I had to go scouting for decent food every night and breakfast was a word absent in our dictionary. Then we slowly started-initially just with curd rice, then moved on to many more delicacies (courtesy: Bhoobi ofcourse). Now, on normal days we have a full three-course south indian meal ending at around 1am in the next morning:).
5. Shopping at Hyderabad Central (esp. when there is a sale:) and watching a movie at Prasadz. I have watched movies in gutter-like theaters in Chennai (Devi theater is one example where the low-lifes sell tickets officially in black!!). Here at Prasadz, you can do the booking online and just walk in about an hour earlier, pay for it and collect the tickets. The ambience and facility inside the theaters has to be seen to be beleived!
6. Temples-occasionally we visit a beautiful but crowded temple called Chilkur Balaji temple. I kinda like a small silent Hanuman temple near our house where you dont have to stand in queues and you dont bump into acquaintances who want to talk about everything under the sun inside the temple premises.
7. KBR Park-This park deserves a special mention among the various parks available in the city-they are all amazingly well-maintained. In this park we have a walk-way of about 6km along the circumfrence of the park open to public-the cleanliness of this walkway (inspite of being a free entry) and the greenery surrounding it makes it an ideal destination for a morning/evening walk.
8. Our Friday night activities-these have varied over time starting with watching movies on the VCD player huddled together in the hall, to playing board games like Business, Scotland Yard etc. Now we have a subset of us preparing for a Yoga course which takes away most of their time and so the rest of us are waiting...:)
9. Microsoft parties- being singles (every one of us AFAIK), we are not allowed to stalk any clubs/parties. So we relish the occasional parties that Microsoft hosts to the fullest extent...dancing our hearts out singing until everyone's voice is a mere croack.
10. Restaurants-once you are ok with spending, Hyderabadi hospitality and cuisine opens its doors to you-there are some superb restaurants like Angeeti,Mainland China,Chutneys,Utsav, Ohris-which are sure to burn a deep hole into your pockets, but are worth every bit of it when you do it occasionally. Then there is this small mess called Kakatiya (quite far from our house) where you would get the most satisfying meal for a paltry Rs. 28-their customer service would put every other restaurant I mentioned previously, to dust! It is truly six-sigma!!
11. Cars-Two of our guys Naresh and Arun have bought cars and all of us like to jump-into one of them whenever the occasion arises (or we might create one:) and these two wonderful souls have never ever refused us a ride and even take the pains of choosing the right CD to play during the ride at the right volume to make it a real pleasure ride.
These are the ones that come to my mind now..will add-on to them as I remember..