Hyderabad

How do you summarize a five-day trip that happened a month ago in one blog post? Poorly I guess. We went to Hyderabad, a city in Southern India, known for its Muslim roots and booming IT sector (I know everybody assumes that India is full of IT sectors, but I hadn’t really seen a big one until now. And it’s quite shocking when you do). The city was a Muslim Kingdom until a few years after India gained independence, joining the new country in 1951. The city was formerly one of the richest cities in the world. So…that’s kind of cool. It’s an interesting mix of newfound wealth, very old wealth, Western influence, and conservative Muslim influence.

Those darn Indian Airlines and their stereotyping

"Yes, I'd like to order 3 dozen chandeliers please."

At a new high class business school, these men are literally cutting the grass with clippers. Like my brother Kevin always used to threaten me with/use as a comparison for my poor mowing performance. 

Marketplace under the Char Minar
For a sweet vid: http://youtu.be/JMbnVR-EAUw

I’ll just highlight some key…..highlights.

There was an incredible fort. Coolest fort ever. And here it is:

For a sweet vid: http://youtu.be/Ek66Xcb2Whs

Really old ruins. Don’t see enough of those.

Lots and lots of misguided advertising

Hey, way to be honest. 

Just a bit unsettling

So true. 

I went to an Easter Vigil mass in the largest octagonal church in Asia. The church was pretty small, so I had ignorantly assumed that the title came not from the impressive architecture of the building, but the fact that the race for largest octagonal church is Asia isn’t that competitive. Except the next day I saw a much smaller octagonal church. Ignorant Americans who think they understand Asia…psht. The ironic part of it all is that the mass was outdoors. Easily a thousand people there, with the front of the church covered in lights. At exactly midnight, the choir blared, all of the lights were turned on, and the bells rang without rhythm for a solid three minutes…in the middle of a neighborhood at midnight. But hey, they were just really excited. So was I.

At the mass I had one of my best conversations ever with a few young teenagers. They were asking us about America, I asked about their lives, etc. They one of the boys asked, “Do you watch any matches? WWE?” I cracked up, because I had just watched WWE in the hotel room the night before for…much too long. He asked my favorite wrestler, I said The Rock, of course. His was, of course, John Cena. Everybody here loves John Cena. I asked him if he was excited for the title bout between John Cena the Rock. It already happened in the U.S., but its being broadcasted in India in a few days. He’s ecstatic for it. He asked me if I prefer Raw or Smackdown. I said of course, Raw, and he thankfully agreed. I don’t know the difference. Then I asked him if he knows Jesse Ventura, and he said he does, but doesn’t much care for him. That was definitely the highlight of the conversation.

South India is much more similar to North India than I expected, but the reality is that wherever you go in India, you’ll find something new. The unfortunate thing about seeing India is it’s just so difficult to explain.