The Beginning of Kir Kiri in Hyderabad

I woke up startled as the alarm on my cell phone buzzed on the morning of July 28 2010 inside the crammed sleeper of Mumbai-Hyderabad Express. It was 4.45 in the morning and we were to reach Begumpet station in 15 mins. As I got freshened up and al set, my mind was still reminiscing about the days spent in the city I had started loving dearly, Pune.  I was on my way, reporting for my maiden assignment in Hyderabad along with two of my batch mates Chaitanya (CP) and Jenson (JD) after a grueling but fun filled training of 2 months.

Send off by batch mates at Pune Stn. JD seemed pissed off, CP optimistic and  I was somewhere in between.

The Pune farewell was no less than a nightmare with 6 of the associates in my training batch being terminated from the organization on the grounds of copying during assessments, one of whom was my roommate and a close friend in college.  As I made a transition back to the sleeper coach, we were caught in a dilemma. The three of us, had been speculating whether to get down at Begumpet or the next and final stop Nampally (Hyderabad Deccan Stn.). Some friend of CP had told him it would be easy for us to reach our reporting location, Mahindra Satyam Tech Centre (MSTC or MSAT), Bahadurpaly, Hyd from Begumpet.  So we decided to descend there.

Next task was to find a lodge where we could freshen up and hire a vehicle to Bhadurpally. It was difficult to walk with all those heavy baggage so I decided to wait with bags at the station while CP and JD went out for lodge hunting. I was alone now. I looked around, at the world outside the station. It was still dark, but could see buildings and foliages. It was intimidating. Thank god I was with 2 other fellas. Had it been a solo assignment, life would have seemed much harsher.

They came back 10 mins later only to tell me that there’s not a single lodge around, not even a hotel. A Samaritan lurking around over heard us and advised us to head towards Nampally stn where we could find some place to stay. Damn! That’s where our train was headed to! Nevertheless we boarded a local train and reached Nampally, a km away from Begumpet. We hadn’t bought a ticket for the local train, assuming the previous ticket would suffice. To our rotten luck we were caught by the T.C. A young and well built fellow, he was adamant at first and started arguing that we cannot travel in locals with a mail ticket (works in Mumbai though doesn’t it?) But finally I guess he got frustrated by the din or was struck by an iota of humanity or maybe sniffed another prospective victim; he let us go with a warning.

Such was our welcome in the city of pearls, Hyderabad.

You will find many men in kurtas (a typical attire in Hyderabad besides lungi clad southies), hovering around Nampally stn offering you rooms in lodge. We randomly choose one such chap who led us to a hotel nearby. We paid the deposits and checked in.  It was an unpleasant looking room with strange room plan. We choose not to give a damn as we had to hurry to MSTC. All had bath. We headed out to find a transport. Bahadurpally sounded village’y and we had no idea how far it would be from Nampally. We went around asking cabbies. They cited fares as high as Rs. 800 and we were no way willing to pay that much. After many trials and lot of persuasion a guy finally agreed for 300. Much of the bargaining credit goes to JD and CP and I was mostly a mum cat.

He drove his Ambassador near to the lodge. We cursed ourselves for lacking the basic intelligence to avoid the need for lodge having already paid the day’s charge and vacating in a matter of hours and like dimwits loaded bags and set off. As the cab moved around, I had a look outside, the city that will be my address for some time now. It was daybreak and there was no crowd, no jam, all were walking around quietly. Unusual sight for a Mumbaite! The roads seemed good, weather not too hot. Suddenly Hyderabad seemed welcoming. The journey was long. The city ended, we entered industrial areas on the city outskirts (called Jeedimetla); that ended too and the Ambassador was wriggling through unknown roads. The driver too had no idea beyond Jeedimetla. We were growing skeptical about our new office. After an hour and a half journey, we finally spotted a tall obelisk beside the main road with ‘Mahindra Satyam’ printed on it and a road leading further inwards.

The sight that caused the sigh of relief

 The car drove in, we were relieved, and so was the driver, who now realized why others were charging 800 bucks. After 10 more minutes of drive through the narrow but tarred alley we reached the gates of MSTC. We were frisked and then told to proceed towards ‘dorms’.  Dorms is an agglomerate of guest houses inside MSAT which houses employees who are on a temporary visit. We paid the driver 50 bucks more for his courtesy and unloaded at Dorms.

Unloading at Dorms

It thus began; the Hyderabad journey and as the time passed by we would realize that our life here is going to be a cocktail of good and bad experiences. But most importantly, the life outside the comforts of home made me mature, independent and responsible. I learned to live and survive. I am forever indebted to this place for bringing about that transformation in me.