Hyderabad Journals, Part 2.

Hello Readers & Wanderlust souls! I know you enjoyed the first part of my Hyderabad Journals by reading all your wonderful comments!! After the wait of a week, here's the next story.. Travel continued with Ramoji Film City adventures!

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On Day 3 of my stay in Hyderabad, I went to Ramoji Film City. It is huge & so it takes the entire day to explore it. Well, if you're from India, you might've heard a lot about Ramoji. Many of the films & daily soaps are shot here including hits like Bahubali. I think Ramoji is home mainly for South Indian films & a few Bollywood ones as well.

So, there were a lot of things to watch at this place. Shall we begin the tour?

Studio Tour & Movie Magic:

The exploration started with many short movies and some shows. There was a 4D space show which was fun. In one show, they told us how action scenes are shot right from scratch. That was really amazing to watch! Others were song-based, action-based shows & comedy-based shows with poor story & direction, according to me, as I did not enjoy them AT ALL. (Yes, the rants have begun!)

The entrance to Ramoji Movie Magic!

 One of the comedy musical shows.

For the love of New York!

Set Locations:

There were many locations wherein there were sets & bus tours were arranged for the same. There was one alley wherein all the buildings looked like those in London! There was another alley wherein there were just bungalows. There was a train set too. There were gardens where romantic scenes were shot. There was one bungalow, which the guide told us was actually used as the home for actor, actress & villain by using different entrances. How easily movie people trick us! Must be fun to do that! We also saw sets of Ramayan/Mahabharat. They were pretty huge & too colourful! We also saw a prison, which was really fun! Here are some of the photos!

This looks like one of those Asian Paints bungalows, right?

This is the Central Prison. Inside there was a jail with criminal models!

Set of Ramayan/Mahabharat.

An interesting pillar I thought shouldn’t be missed!

Doesn't it look just like a railway station? Well, it's only a set!

Bahubali Set:

If you're an Indian, you must be well aware about the hyped movie Bahubali & its sequel. Those who are not aware, don't worry, you're not missing out on anything. I didn't like this action-drama film as it is against any logical explanation. So, there isn't a single photo I wanted taken here, but still my brother took a candid anyway. Because, he loves to watch me burn. Whatever.

Keeping my feelings about the movie apart, the set was huge & really amazing! Yes, I’m admitting to actually liking something, partially anyway… It entirely had a brown-ocre theme. There were huge statues of 6 or so horses. A lot of things were placed in that one set! It had an aura of ROYAL to it, which made people go more fan-crazy over it.

After the exit from the Bahubali set, the bus took us to a beautiful view. I enjoyed that as well.

The Throne.

Dad posing!

Mom at the Snack Bar!

Ashwin pretending to be an actor in the Film City.

I like Big Pillars & I cannot lie.

Group family photo for the day!

Bird Park, Eco Park, Flower Park & Kripalu Caves:

I wasn't really expecting these in a Film City. I was tired by viewing all the sets & by the tour. So, it felt meaningless to carry on watching butterflies, ducks & flowers! We have that everywhere! This paragraph does not end with "I was wrong. It was really worth it." We really have that everywhere! All in all, caves were the least boring of all & shortest. So, automatically, they became most liked.

Dracarys!!!

(I clicked this photo only to put that as the caption.)

Inside the caves.

Rantings Begin:

So, it was a long day; REALLY long day. There were 5 to 6 places at least & to go to these places we had to take an internal bus route. And since it was an entire chain system kind of a thing, there wasn't really an escape in the middle. You don't know the way out. Like a maze, once you're in, you'll have to find the way out as per the rules & in slowly. This was the one thing I hated. Because of this, I couldn't skip anything & had to cover everything even if I wasn't interested. It was like being a Literature Major & sitting for a Math lecture. 

Secondly, I'm not a film fanatic & hence I didn't like the first part of the tour involving movie scenarios. Most of them were either boring or nonsensical. And all of them gave me a headache. I absolutely did not enjoy that part of the tour And since it was the beginning of the tour, it just ruined my mood right at the start, leaving me cranky the entire day!

Since it is a 2000 acres land, you cannot really go outside for food. So, you're left with restaurants in the city. I only liked 'Drive In Jimmys' where I had the best burger ever! No kidding! The place where we had lunch was only okay. This leaves me to ask, "Why weren't there guides?" There should be some proper system! If you're making the largest studio complex in the world into a tourist attraction, make some ground rules! There should be, probably, batches of tourists & a guide assigned to each one for first half of the tour. Then, people can decide where to eat for themselves from among the few places which are actually open. Then, in the second half, they can gather again. Is it so difficult? I don't think there were even any directions at one point which left everyone baffled. I hate mismanagement & so I didn't like this experience much. But, I couldn't quit, could I?

Apart from all these rantings & the fact that I'd give Ramoji a 4/10 stars, I did like a FEW things about it. (Let me remember.) I liked the one view after the Bahubali set. The photo in which I'm standing by the pillars. (Guess what? That's not a fake smile, for a change!) I loved the burgers. I kind of liked the feel of the caves. The London alley & Central Prison were fun. Okay, I'll stop now. I can't make up stuff anymore. But, yes, if you love films, go there, you'll have a great time!

This post & my opinions are entirely biased given the fact that I'm an introvert who hates typical desi films & hates moving place-to-place in buses & gets bored of things easily. My family enjoyed it, so maybe I'm just weird. But, I don't care. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Next Wednesday I'll post about Hotel review, best food places, airport looks & favourite outfits on the tour along with some funny little stories!!

Have you been to Ramoji Film City? How was your experience?

Public Transport or Traffic Jams? (Daily Commute #6)

Hello Readers! Hope you all had a great weekend. To start your week afresh, here are some thoughts.

I saw an image on Instagram posted by a friend, Sagar Kulkarni. It was captioned, "Let's try & use more of the public transport, at least for everyday travel." And, I knew I had to share this little write-up based on the photo I saw.

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Instead of going through all 4 modes of transportation from office to home, I decided to book a cab one day. It was comfortable & less tiresome.

I decided to do the same thing on the day it was flooded. "No cabs available."

How did I reach home? Public transportation.

I remember the time I used to criticize public transport. I hated when trains were delayed. Hated it even more when they were cancelled for no 'reasonable reason.' I still get agitated when rickshawalas do their selective screening of customers. (I mean, hello? I'm a recruiter, leave the screening to me & just drop me at the destination.) I wasn't much of a fan of buses either. They kind of made me nauseous. So, you see the problem? The list goes on...

But, then I grew up & sucked it up. You start to realise that the importance stressed on public transport is really for reasons that go beyond an individual's immature likes & preferences. So, yeah, I decided to take 4 modes of transportation (bus, train, metro & rickshaw) to reach office from home instead of taking my 2-wheeler or booking a cab without thinking of carpool.

"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars, it's where the rich ride public transportation."

I'm sure you must’ve read this quote too & it would’ve been just another underrated quote from among the many irrelevant hyped up ones you choose to overthink upon. Sad, isn't it? You'd rather sit in traffic jams for hours pondering over something as silly as commitment issues, while ignoring the one thing that needs your attention. The irony! And, let me tell you, I'm no different. I've had days when I craved personal space & not having people all around me when my life was falling apart. I mean, you can cry sitting in your own car, but if you do that in train, you'll get stares which you don't need at that particular moment. But, there's always home to fall apart & get back up. You just have to reach there swimming through a sea of people. Because, in the face of a calamity, they are the ones who will help you out. Not your personal space & definitely not your own SUV. Time & again, history has repeated. I witnessed it recently in the August rains, how you lean on public transport when you don't have an option. So, why do we wait for a disaster to happen? Why not take the last resort as the first? After all, we all know, public transport is the best option, no matter how much we want to deny it.

• I don't need public transport. But, I prefer it.
• It helps to do a lot of tasks on the commute while also saving time.
• It saves the environment, if you're bothered about anything else than yourself. (Reduces carbon footprint, gasoline consumption, congestion & saves fuel.)
• It could be funny watching random people & you might even make friends. That's what I'm doing with this series!!
• It is always reliable, unlike your car which might get a flat tire any time or worse.

And, the thing is, I stated these points only because the post kind of seemed incomplete without it. But, you all already know this, right? Because, you all are such smart people with your white-collar jobs or running your own business or something more badass! 

So, if you know this & are using public transport, YOU ARE AWESOME!

And, if you know this & are NOT using public transport, what are you doing?

So, public transport or traffic jams? Choice is yours.

Long-Distance Relationship.. (Diary Logs #5)

Hello Readers! I hope your week was good & even though it wasn't, TGIF, right!? Talking about Fridays, it's time for another Diary Logs post!! This time it's a fictional page from the diary of a girl who's in a long-distance relationship, thinking about everything, all over again...

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Dear Diary,

Another day has passed. I miss him immensely. It's not like we're on different time zones, but sometimes even being in the same country, but miles apart, is all it takes to miss someone. Let me tell you when we last talked. An hour before on Skype. It was a 1.5 hours video call, I think. Before that, we were chatting for a while. And we call each other up at least 6 times a day. And those calls can go anywhere from "I'm in a long queue, what's up?" to "My manager has not come in today, so we can snap all day!" to "Need your opinion on these shoes I want to buy." to "I wish you were here. I love you." So, I didn't know when I became that kind of person, but he's not just my boyfriend or my fiancé. He's my best friend & that's where everything comes to perspective.

I remember when we were children. That's right; I knew him since forever! He was always the smart one and yet he always, always allowed me to be a know-it-all. He went along with my crazy thoughts & ideas. When we were kids, I loved spending time with him. There was just something about him that made me naturally trust him.
But, as we grew up, we grew apart. We were friends only when we were kids. And after our school ended, we barely talked. And, I suppose neither one of us noticed it, really. And then, one day, years later, we met each other on the street! I cannot state the randomness of things! We talked for a while & then met up later on to talk some more. We laughed about childhood, pretended to be managing adulthood & shared so many laughs that it felt like it was just like old times. Nothing had changed.

As the day became young, we did too.

As the night fell upon, we fell in love too.

That was that day. And there's today. We are engaged. While I'm working in Mumbai, he's working in Kolkata. We both love our jobs too much. We also love each other too much. We have our differences, but that doesn't stop us from being together. We are not 'working through' our relationship or preaching about how difficult it is to be in a 'long-distance relationship. We're just giving each other as much as ourselves as possible. Because, we'll have rest of the future to be together. I love how things are right now.

I love him.

He loves me. 

We're best friends.

What more could I ask for?

Hyderabad Journals, Part 1!

Hello Readers! Well, I really shouldn't call myself a 'Travel Blogger', because I travel once or mostly twice a year. But, whenever I do, I ALWAYS make sure it's up on the blog! Writing about travel is my second favourite thing to do, the first being writing fiction! So, after 1.5 years of travel slump, (I know, Oh My God, how did I survive without travelling so long!), I finally visited Hyderabad! It was a short four-day trip with family. Basically, in those four days, I slept for 2 days (hotel room, flights, cabs, name it) because I don't get to sleep when I'm not on vacation. So, tip: When on vacation, SLEEP!

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So, what to expect from my recent travel posts?

1. 3 Posts in total, 2 posts about the places & 1 post about hotel, food & tips!

2. LOADS of photos. (Few of mine.)

3. Probably a few (or many) rants!

So, I hope you're ready!

On Day 1 & Day 4, I was lazying around in the comfy hotel bedroom. So, here goes my adventurous touristy travel journal on Day 2! On this day, I covered all the places located in Hyderabad city. I went to 5 main places namely, Salar Jung Museum, Chowmahalla Pallace, Charminar, Golconda Fort & Hussain Sagar lake! Here we go. I hope you enjoy the trip!

Salar Jung Museum:

Salar Jung museum is one of the largest museums in the world & it really was because it took forever for me to explore all of it! There are so many forms of art stored there that you cannot leave the place unsatisfied. You'll find statues, paintings, artefacts, carvings, sculptures, ceramics, manuscripts, carpets & the list goes on... What is more impressive is that this collection ranges from 2nd century B.C. to 20th century A.D.  & is collected from all over the world. Amazed? So was I!

As for the history, this gallery is dedicated to the family of Salar Jung. It was a family tradition to acquire precious art objects, which then so wonderfully transformed into such a beautiful museum preserving all that the royal family believed & storing art, more than everything else!

You can check out more about Salar Jung Museum on their official website.

Innovative Walking Sticks!
There was an entire room to display such different types of walking sticks. The purpose is not just to use it as a walking aid, but also to serve as a decorative accessory & defensive weapon. The above are the ones I loved! In the form of a skull, faces of dogs and lastly footwear. This exquisite collection was one different aspect that I found in the Salar Jung museum.

Manuscripts & seals.
 There were many rooms wherein manuscripts & books were kept which were in various different languages, hardly legible. There were also many books about medicine which was surprising. Medical knowledge written in Sanskrit.

Wine glasses.
There was a lot of collection of silverware & other cutlery from the SalarJung family. Most of it was everyday items, but these glasses caught my eye & hence, here they are!

For the love of Game of Thrones!!
I think there were many rooms wherein weapons were kept; there were SO MANY! Swords, shields, knives, armors!! There was a 6 ft 5 inches statue of a soldier, which if you ask me, felt a lot like Jamie Lannister! It was in a protected glass though, so I couldn't take a good enough picture! But, both of us, my brother & I just loved these sections!

Chowmahalla Palace:

This might sound cliche, but I don't care. I LOVE palaces! I love the feeling of royalty, huge doors, never-ending hallways, fancy chandeliers, embroidered carpets, vastness of gardens & just a fairy tale life! I absolutely love it. Who wouldn't? Every time I have visited a palace, I get lost in the grandiosity of it & am never able to stop thinking about the kind of lifestyle Kings & Queens must’ve had. Apart from all the stress about fighting wars, of course.

Still, end note, I love palaces!

So, Chowmahalla Palace consists of 4 palaces that belonged to the Nizams of Hyderabad. It has since been meticulously restored. This was one of my favourites in the entire trip. It reminded me of the time I had visited Mysore Palace & I was just as mesmerized, even more! 

You can check out more about Chowmahalla Palace on their official website.

The Throne.

his is the throne where the King used to sit. I mean, look at it! White marble everywhere carved so beautifully with chandeliers hanging around the large hall. I'm just glad that this history & culture is preserved, because at times like these, we actually value it. 

This is one of my favourite images! I had even kept it as my mobile wallpaper, to be honest! The strong pillar with beautiful carvings that are hard to understand. I think that's how a woman should be; strong, beautiful & hard to understand. Okay, that was off-topic.

Pin this image & make me popular!

Charminar:

Char means four and minar means pillar. So, you can see from the architecturally magnificent structure, how Charminar stands. When we visited, it was being reconstructed or something on those lines. And as it is located in a very busy area, we couldn’t stop there, but surely took a few clicks on route!
Its architecture is again fabulous, which is one of reasons why we wanted to see it for ourselves!

Golcondo Fort:

Golconda fort was among another one of my favourites. After palaces, FORTS are my second favourite places to be. I can almost hear my brother roll his eyes at this, that's because I hate to climb all the way up, but I still love the feeling of being on a fort. It somehow makes me feel braver, in a way, because of its history perhaps. And, even though the climb is tough, the view is worth everything!

I was running short on time, so I decided to start climbing the fort. I did not ask for a guide, because I’m never sure about their stories or authenticity. But, it’d have been fun to know some secret ways in & out the fort or something exciting! There are simple stairs which you need to climb, nothing too adventurous on this one, unless if there are any secret pathways.

Anyway, have a look!

Mom & Dad!

That’s my younger brother, Ashwin! (He loves trekking.)

View from Top!
You can see the sidelines of the fort on the bottom & then there's the view of Hyderabad city above!

I promise I wasn't wearing black all the time.. Just like 78% of the time.

Group Photo!

In the entire trip, we took only 2 good group selfies. You're blessed with one of them, thank you!

Hussain Sagar Lake:

This one is another amazing place & not to be missed! You'd think it's just another lake, but I assure you that you MUST visit it anyway! It is huge! It is spread across an area of 5.7 square kilometres. Ignoring the traffic on the street behind, if you spend some time here, it feels really peaceful! I love lakes & oceans & beaches too. So obviously I had to love this one!

I read this on wiki & thought of sharing, because it's so touching! Hussain Sagar is a heart-shaped lake. The King at the time built it for people's drinking facility & this was an act out of love! So, that was some impressive story!

Day View.

Night View.

Love Hyderabad!
This was the selfie point, so obviously it was really crowded. The letters in red are written in Devnagri saying 'Love' followed by 'HYD'.

I had to take this one!

So, I think I started at the museum around 11:30 AM & covered everything up to the lake by 7 PM! The hotel was really far away from the main city area which is why it took around one to 1.5 hours to reach the city. This was the main problem due to which I couldn't stay at every place as much as I wanted to. And we couldn't cover all the places as well, due to time constraints. But, whichever chosen places we visited were really worth it & I enjoyed this day the most!!

Have you visited Hyderabad? Which among the above are your favourites or any others? Tell me in the comments below!
Stay tuned & I'll post about my experience at Ramoji Film City next Wednesday!!

Festive Spirits on & off the road! (Daily Commute #5)

Hello Readers! This post is going to be a little bit in sync with the festive spirit that's going on here in India! We had Navratri in the past week, which is a Hindu festival celebrated for nine nights to worship Goddesses. Here's a little commute story on that!

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There are so many festivals celebrated in India & the frequency is really high, so there's always something or the other coming up! Like, how in USA, the span from Thanksgiving to New Year is, it is like that in India throughout the year, I suppose! Crazy, right!? So, we had Navratri from 21st September to 29th September this year. The amazing thing about this festival is that on every day, there is a colour decided, so if you have that colour of clothes or anything else & you want to be in an all-festive mood, then you can get on with it & MANY people do it. Especially women!

So, one of the days, the colour was red & it was so ... I don't even have a word for it! I stepped into the train compartment & 90% of the ladies were in RED! Be it formals, dresses or even sarees! It felt like I belonged in the group & that I was a part of something. At one point I even thought that it was like a flash mob situation & everyone would get up & start singing & dancing. Because, I was that excited with that blood red!

On one of the other days, I was in train & it was decorated from the inside. There were garlands & those sparkly wires we use in birthday celebrations tied up on the walls & ceiling. There were a few posters with the photo of a Goddess with the text, "Happy Navratri." In the hustle & bustle of everyday commute, who would have even done that? And who would have thought of it in the first place!? It really baffled me how people can go overboard for festivals!

And lastly, how can I forget about yesterday! There are many places in the city where there are stages placed & an idol of goddess is there for people to pray. While I was returning from work at night, I saw this one place. The entire street was decorated with colourful lights hung from trees. There was a band playing as well. I saw the idol of Goddess there & it was really beautiful. Even though it was around 11 PM, I just stopped for a while & waited there to pray. And again, in that moment, as I was looking at the Goddess, there were people in some distance praying, there was devotional music playing & in that moment, again, I felt that sense of belonging.

I might not be as devoted as others when it comes to festivals.

I might not follow everything religiously all times.

I might not know all the words to the prayers.

But, I do know what it means to believe in something & I'm grateful for that.



Source: Suruchi Kulkarni