Wandering Around in Hyderabad - ft. Pallavi, Niveditha Aunty and Vidhur

 Pallavi offered to take me to view the Art and murals done in suburban Hyderabad - Eidgah. I was tired of being cooped up at home studying so I said yes. I took the polaroid camera A anna gave me on my 11th birthday and Mama's second phone for pictures. All set, we left at 250 pm and reached t around 315. We parked in the compound. The buildings on the left were painted. Pallavi especially liked a pink wall with flowered designs. Another had images of a man stumbling. Through the crack of the buildings we saw a green building with a few birds. The garbage, sewage and general unhygienic environment right in front of the buildings was paradoxical. The walls had symbols of secularism followed by a Do not Pass Urine sign which had been adorned with the same. Niveditha Aunty and Vidhur were a little while away so we went down the lane. Pallavi told me that an organisation call St+rt had collaborated with Asian Paints and several artists to bring contemporary art to the common man and hence the Bastis were full of thought provoking stuff. While approaching the lane we saw a couple of goats chilling on top of a run-down car and Pallavi took out her DSLR. Seeing this, a young man approached us and asked us if we were artists and if we would paint his house. Pallavi said sure. But, we said after Niveditha Aunty and Vidhur came we would check it out. That was all. 

Picture Credit : Anjali and Pallavi

Vidhur blowing bubbles

Me and Bhutta

Vidhur and Bhutta


Vidhur with his sword

Vidhru at Kaamat

Blistering Sky



Very real



Ice cream wala






Pallavi drinking water

The birds that remained behind from their flock by the time I took out the camera

Children playing


Secularism



Starting point

Cat posing

Niveditha Aunty and Vidhur at Yellow Gully
  
Jelly Fish in Yellow Gully


 

Then we started down the road. I felt like a stranger in my hometown here. I realised that the environment I grew up in is a small fraction when compared to the city. I felt artificial and very modern. The houses looked amazing. I saw a girl lower a basket and a vendor drop vegetables in it very casually. Nobody minded the goats or dogs roaming around. The young girls wore dresses or salwar-kameez and the older ones a head scarf or burqa. Everyone seemed to know the others. They were all very glad to give directions, often confusing. The shops had a very homely feeling with names like Rehman Baker or MZ Enterprise. COVID-19 protocol however was not being followed. Personally, our group sanitized and distanced ourselves. 

We met Niveditha Aunty and Vidhur soon and then we went in search of Yellow Gully. An old man wearing a fez and kurta had an amazing smile. We went to Yellow Gully and saw a jellyfish on a yellow wall and some other yellow walls. A goat was urinating right next to Yellow Gully. We then walked a bit more. We saw men preparing food in handis as a daawat was approaching. It all seemed as if out of a travelogue. After a while, we decided to head back to Niveditha Aunty's car and drive around. 

The walls were covered with lovely geometric art and we saw one small rectangle with a hipster titled 'Goal Digger'. After a icecream pitstop, we drove around some more. We went to the ATM and then we drove through Public Gardens. We had bhutta and juice. We then went to Kaamat Hotel and I had a plain dosa. Vidhur blew plenty of bubbles into his milkshake. Overall, it was a fun getaway after a long month of exam preparation. 

Thank you so much Pallavi, Vidhur and Niveditha Aunty! I had the time of my life!


Comments

  1. Rajendra9 March 2021 at 11:21

    Getting to know your city! Very good!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dr. Seven9 March 2021 at 19:34

    I like the photos. You have sense for composition in photographs that many people lack.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Abhinay Renny10 March 2021 at 00:30

    Love the picture stories A. I like the way you shortened everyone's names into their letters :P

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cast-e Your Eye Over : Happy Ambedkar Jayanti

Image
This one has been a long time coming. I've hesitated to write this blog for years now. Every time I hear the word 'caste' I get an uneasy feeling. Before, that uneasy feeling used to be fear and embarrassment. Who discusses such things? Today, it's guilt. It's guilt for not expressing my position so far. It's guilt for letting every casteist remark slide. It's guilt for not having the courage to challenge the narrative of our upper-class friends. It's guilt for being quiet. It's guilt for being ashamed.  My first interaction with caste was with my civics textbook. I'd heard the infrequent comment at school. 'Nuvvu Reddy caste aa?' or a 'We are proud Brahmins' was not unheard of. But it felt like everyone knew the history of the caste system. It was something that existed ages ago. In today's society, caste didn't matter. As one of my teacher's put it, today, when you go to eat a meal in a restaurant, do you care what c...
Read more

Over the MUN

Image
I used to scoff at the "MUN kid" stereotype. Obnoxious, bratty, condescending. "You don't know that also aa?"  I was not that kid. I was the kid who aced the tests, who would write an opinionated essay but whose ears would block out when handed a microphone. The one that said 'phew' after getting off stage. Going from that to winning awards at Model United Nations conferences was a plot twist Abbas-Mustan couldn't have predicted. 2023 was just one new experience after the other and I forgot to sit back for a minute and reflect on how much I'd changed. It was when my first grade teacher Kamakshi Aunty commented on a profile photo of me addressing a gathering saying "I'm so glad you finally overcame your fear of public speaking" that I realised that a change had happened at all.  In kindergarten, I was given an important set of lines in a skit for Independence Day. I came to school lines in hand, stuffed into an uncomfortable Nehru co...
Read more

Existential Philosophy : Karim Benammar

Image
 As part of my 'Introspection Summer', I signed up for three courses on Udemy, and completed one. 'Existential Philosophy' by Karim Benammar. It not only provided clarity as to existential crises and purpose, but opened up a whole new world of freedom and choice.  Why are we alive? There are two questions that we seek the answers to. How to make a living and How to give shape to our life. We have answered the first question through careers, and providing for our families. We have a world of abundance, where survival is no longer our primary purpose. We have time and energy to do other things, which brings us to the question 'How do we give shape to our life?' Throughout our lifetime we are simply becoming who we are. We are free to live authentically. We are free to sculpt our life, but that is a responsibility, and newsflash says - 'That's scary!'. Why are you alive? That question can make your life meaningful and enjoyable. The answer is to b...
Read more