Lorraines Visit to Hyderabad

My Mother-in-law came to visit us here in Hyderabad from Canada...her visit was directly on the heels of my parents visit from America. We wanted them to come this time of the year because of the weather. The Indian summer is starting up and we thought it would be better for them to miss as much of the heat as possible.
Scott was in his usual work-aholic mode so Lorraine and I had a great time seeing the sights of the city without him and some of the other 'work widows' that live here.

No visit to Hyderabad would be complete without a trip to Charminar and the row after row of bangle stores that could be found there. (Lorraine wanted to know exactly how many bangles can one person use in a lifetime?)

I was really pleased with how quickly Lorraine fit in with the locals... she even took a scooter for a spin around the neighborhood. (Kidding...this as close as she got.)

Here is a picture of Lorraine and our dog Scruff... Lorraine is prepared for the outdoor market with her water, hat, comfortable shoes, light cool clothes, sunscreen lotion, mosquito repellent, sun glasses, and I suspect tissues in her purse... Scruff said, "forget it...I'll just stay home".

Lorraine was hounded by the paparazzi everywhere we went...We took her to the F-cafe incognito. F-cafe stands for Fashion cafe... It's really nice, professional decorated... gourmet western food.

I also took her to McDonald's after a day of clothes shopping. McDonald's doesn't really need an explanation...except the only things the same in an Indian McDonald's that are at an American/Canadian McDonald's is the fillet of fish and ice cream... they claim the fries are the same, but I don't believe them.

Don't tell Scott but Lorraine and I caught an Auto Rickshaw home one day after seeing some sights. This is a ride I think Universal Studios should put in their theme parks.

Lorraine made many new friends at the cooking classes we attended at the Novotel. Here is a picture of some of us with the chef.

I think one of the highlights of her visit was sari shopping. This is one of the best experiences you can have (for women) in India. You sit on a chair with a big long table in front of you. The shop keepers bring sari after sari and spread them out on the table for you to view. The table gets higher and higher as the saris pile up.

When you find one you like they will wrap you in the sari and show you what it will look like in a full length mirror... (Orest better watch out... this guy behind Lorraine seemed really interested in her).

Here is Trina Joi, Me, Lorraine, Meera, Vijaya and Rathnamma at the sari shop...It was a really fun day that ended with us going to Chutney's restaurant for a vegetarian Indian lunch.

We took the sari that Lorraine picked out to a tailor, where they measured her and stitched her blouse and sari overnight. There was a little resistance when we told them we wanted the blouse to come all the way to her waist (most sari blouses are short and show the midriff... no matter age or physical attributes).

We went to dinner at the Golden Dragon Restaurant at the Taj Krishna Hotel. Here is a picture of John and Lorraine.

Here is a picture of Lorraine and Scott looking rather smart.

The whole family.... Viajya took the picture, below is a picture of Vijaya and Lorraine in John's room.

Lorraine is one of the best writers I know... she wrote down some of her thoughts for me to use in the blog. Her words were so well expressed that I thought it best to just put them down below as she wrote them:
Lorraine's thoughts on Hyderabad

People here always want to know what visitors think about Hyderabad.

When I first began riding around the city, all I could see on the streets was construction. Scaffolding everywhere, with huge blue plastic sheets covering the skeletons of buildings, and rubble on every corner. After being here a few days, I began to look past the debris to the houses behind the walls that separate them from the streets. Beautiful wrought-iron gates guard the entrance to tree-lined courtyards behind high walls. Huge stucco houses, mainly white, with tiled roofs – to me, very Mediterranean. Rooms are large and spacious with beautiful marble floors and high ceilings featuring a variety of designs and decorations. Hyderabad is a great city growing a little too fast for comfort. As long as everyone goes in the same general direction on their side of the street, traffic is a no-holds-barred affair not advisable for the faint of heart. Picture a divided racetrack, with at least four lanes on each side of the median. Now put hundreds of bumper cars, bicycles, motorcycles, pedestrians and the odd water buffalo into the mix, and a 10-year old boy on each vehicle. Shout, “Have fun!” and get the hell out of the way. Signs urge drivers to obey traffic rules, but I could see no signs that spelled out the actual rules, although I’m sure there are some. In North America, cutting in front of other drivers is considered not only rude but dangerous, but here it seems to be the norm, as long as everyone continually honks their horns. I felt safer in the back seat, to tell the truth! Even though the family has a driver, Robyn managed to acquire her driver’s license here and drives the family’s second car on a daily basis. An independent woman who comes and goes as she pleases, she has since motivated other western women to give it a try. Even most western men don’t venture forth in this traffic, let alone their wives, and everyone uses the services of a male driver.

Beggars tap on car windows whenever traffic slows down enough. If one were to act on a sympathetic impulse and contribute to their constant requests for alms, there would be an instant and demanding group of people crowding around the car. This necessitates learning to ignore these pitiful souls, which is hard to do when they start as little children, often holding their infant siblings while they mime “food in mouth” to tourists and visitors. Nearby and trying to be invisible is the “uncle” everything misbegotten goes to, like a pimp. It’s been said before, but India truly is a land of contrasts.

We had a lovely family dinner at the Golden Dragon restaurant in the Taj Krishna, a beautiful and grand old hotel in Hyderabad. Huge, elegant, old-world and traditional are descriptive words that come to mind. The family often has lunch or dinner at their favourite dining spots, such as the F Café (The F stands for Fashion), Ohri’s, and Chutney’s. We tried out a newer hillside restaurant with an outdoor bar, called Tamaara.

Weekly cooking classes sponsored by the nearby Hotel Novotel were enlightening and inspiring, and I’ve gained a new respect for the magical mystical blending of fresh spices (this blend is called a masala, a detail I’m proud to report I already knew from my Indian friend Alison, who now lives in Canada).

Shopping was terrific and varied, with everything a tourist could ask for, from large shopping malls to little shops in the middle of the city. A historic street bazaar called Charminar boasted dozens of bangle kiosks, and we also visited a handicraft village called Shilparmam, where I went a little pashmina-crazy, I’m afraid. My friends back in Canada will love them, I think.

As for the Indian food – well, I really enjoyed it, although it took my system a good ten days to catch up with my enthusiasm.

Before I came to India, I was advised to bring two different medicines to sooth an upset tummy, as well as a bottle of antibiotic pills in case the other medicines didn’t solve the problem. After getting innoculated for Hepatitis A and Typhoid, and purchasing my daily anti-Malaria pills, I was outright warned to protect myself against both the daytime, Dengue Fever-carrying mosquitos and the dusk-to-dawn Malaria-causing mosquitos. I hated to douse myself in Deet-drenched insect repellent, but I endured the stink in the name of the cause – namely, not to make a long-lastng souvenir of some exotic tropical disease.