Excerpts from an email to a friend reporting on a recent trip.
"Now that I’ve slept (about 12 hours last night which is unheard of for me) I have had a chance to catch up on backlog items – yesterday I posted the rest of photos on Picasa. The Geotags for the Golkonda Fort are correct and the rest are geotagged to my Hotel as I have no idea where the real shots were taken in the city. The "google" hotel is under construction so don’t expect much there.
The trip was quite a cultural experience. I’ve traveled a bit to non-developed countries and have experienced poverty masses so that part was not new. The poverty juxtaposed with massively modern western technology companies was striking and confusing. China's "new territories" outside Hong Kong were undergoing a similar transition in the 90's, but had not yet completed anything so dramatically contrasting.
Hyderabad has grown their city area by 5 times in the lat 5 years, I'm assuming to accommodate the investment in technology growth. The two SEZ (special economic zones) that I came in contact with are known as HITEC City and a newer Cyberabad.
Hyderabad and its twin city Secundrabad are known for their “Dakhani culture” and has been heavily influenced by Muslim rulers (Persian and Arab). You can read more of the tourist and city promoters at wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad,_India. But be careful, that site is NOT what I saw, there is more to the story.
The one thing that strikes you immediately is how hostile the land is – it is boulder strewn with massive boulders (Deccan or "South" Rocks) rounded presumably by rain perched everywhere, most looking like they should topple and wipe out whatever is in its path. The ground is rock, granite, and a bit of dirt thrown in. Construction projects were clearly having to deal with the massive boulders and granite. The granite can be blasted, but the boulders are different – think of a jar of jelly beans with dirt thrown in to fill the gaps between the beans, now start putting a foundation on top of that. (btw, hats off to Bing.com - Google could not find what I needed for explanation of Deccan Rocks).
The second thing that strikes you is the utter filth and garbage everywhere. I honestly don’t think there is a trash can in the whole of Hyderabad. It is pervasive in the culture to just disgard things on the ground. This may have roughly worked in the ancient days when most things were organic, but in the day of non-decaying plastics, added with the only clean source of water being bottled water, you can imagine the pile up. When at national archeology preserve Golkonda Fort they evidently have been restoring it over the last 10 or 15 years (and making good progress according to the pictures), but even here, just off the pathways inside rooms or nooks, mounds of trash was everywhere – this would be like our national parks or monuments being active attractions but trashed. The bottom line I think on the pyramid of needs, this just doesn’t register. I recalled thinking about home (the GPNW) and the horror of visitors from cultures accustomed to such practices – how long would it take them to understand this is not acceptable for us? For a well-to-do local to come to Seattle, the lack of trash would be the first cultural shock they got.
People lived everywhere the roadsides were filled with endless permanent tent (used generously) camps – I even saw a couple that had somehow brought power to theirs. Rough cut wood was everywhere as it was obviously trucked in; looked to be used for charcoal creation and/or for cooking. Stories of people being electrocuted were common and, universally, the power company in the same article denied any wrong doing. One man a photographer, was obviously electrocuted (police, witnesses, hospital, etc.), but the power company said a downed power line didn’t exist; that no wire could have touched the pool of water in the street. BTW, you are not “Dead on Arival” in India, you are “Brought in Dead.”
By far the biggest surprise was the cuisine, unreal. Biryani is from Hyderabad so that was obviously a treat and the various spiced and non-spiced dishes of chicken and lamb were to die for. Not one bad meal and not one hint of their food being a shock to my system. The variety of breads was too many for me to keep track of – I just took what was there and didn’t bother to keep notes.
The people of Hyderabad were polite. The crush of the streets was at times downright scary, but not for our safety, but rather for the collective safety of everyone – it was obvious that someone had to be trampled, but that western obviousness was simply incorrect. There are accidents to be sure, I read them in the paper, I just didn’t witness any where I thought I should have. The honking was the damndest of all – lots of it, but you could actually tell the difference in that the honking was purely informative and without malice. There was no shouting, hand gestures, glares, or hostile actions of any kind. The people were curious when they found two Caucasians riding around so they looked and, if smiled to, they would warmly smile back. The kids obviously didn’t need much encouragement. The only glare that I got was the driver of the boys (I didn’t notice until looking at the pictures). I also noted the school dress and that these boys probably were from wealthier families and the driver probably was responsible for their protection – so the glare was a healthy protective one, especially given my camera.
As for getting out to “really” discover the city/people - that just was not possible nor did I have any desire to attempt that feat. The streets were in disarray and the sides were absent any organized paths or sidewalks. It was just dirt, torn up road, and no prediction to what you would find from 20 feet to the next 20 feet. It would have been impossible to actually wonder around without first being much more acclimated to the people, and to be dressed with hiking boots and tougher clothing. Crime and danger seemed absent, obviously there is crime, but compared to our society, nothing close given the same economic conditions. Nothing was chained up (bikes, motor bikes, etc.). There were locks for doors, but no bars, barbed wire, or broken coke bottles posted on walls (ala Mexico) to keep people out. We had to settle for being in a “bubble” the entire time. We had a very nice hotel that was for westerners, we had a driver 24/7 from start to finish of our trip (btw, the clicking you heard was Jenny’s Nikon D90), and we were taken to western places for shopping. Jenny thankfully did insist on a local place to eat (we just said, closest place right here… and we did indeed go into a very cool local joint). Our driver was, and is, a virtuoso, that sucker was fluid where chaos abounded. He gained our trust so quickly that we didn’t sit in terror at all. On the very last day, a rookie to the streets made an unpredicted move and our driver tapped on the brakes which surprised the hell out of us and I remarked that I’m glad that hadn’t happened the first day because we would have forever thought our crash was imminent.
Transportation was a mix of three wheel two-stroke yellow taxis called Auto Rickshaw (Auto) and these babies were decked out in all configurations; the type of horns being but one of the stamps of uniqueness, my favorite were the big squeeze horns. The wheels were the size of a small pizza. The trucks were called “Goods Carriers” and they were colorfully decorated and very cool. And then there were the motorcycles (almost all Honda Hero/India built) – everywhere. I will say though the Indian’s have nothing on the Thai – in Thailand, they can get several generations of a family on one bike, whereas the Indians seemed to max out at 3 people. I don’t think the Indians have discovered the front loading passenger technique perfected by the Thais.
On the political front, there are a number of insurgencies that I discovered while there (Maoist Rebels and the Naxals (related)) which seem to be in decline or about defeated, but still active. When the Chief Minister (CM) went missing the Wednesday I was there, he went down in a jungle that they used to control; hence the rumors were wild for a day. When they discovered the crash and the accidental death of the CM, there was tangible relief among the technology class of Hyderabad because the real fear was any excuse for foul play would have instantly resulted in peaceful people turning into mass rioters. This is why on Thursday police alerts were raised to Red and all businesses started shutting down. It turned out the masses did indeed require control; the news showed the police having a hard time, but it was due to people crushing their way to the body which had been returned to the city center of Hyderabad. It was just peaceful, but difficult, mourning.
Another major event that happened right when we got there was the High Court in the Andhra Pradesh state went up in flames and with it went a huge collection of historic legal documents. The library contained a “collection of 30,000 books many of them dating back to the Nizam’s time… among the books lost are tomes on laws from all over the world. The Corpus Juris Secundum, and encyclopedia on US law, the Halsbury’s Laws of England and also reports from the British and Scottish legal set-ups….” It goes on and on and what I found as so interesting is the study of so many different legal systems to help guide these judges – this is an active High Court.
BTW, remember the electrical issues above? “judges…decided to probe whether overdrawing of the power capacity could have caused the short-circuit.” The next day power company official refuted any possibility their power system was at fault.
Interestingly enough, yesterday when talking to Kenny (my son), he said yes, some of his best friends from Eastern Illinois University were from Hyderabad – he even had the correct pronunciation. I was floored. I then recalled how he ranted and raved about India food and last year was always trying to get me to go to India food joints. Now I get it because the group of students he was friends with had brought their Hyderabad dishes with them – it finally all made sense.
So, I hope I’ve given you your culture report. I certainly would never go there for vacation, but if given the chance to travel while working, I go again - I always enjoy the cultural exchange. If you ever want to experience crushing humanity (and I would strongly advise against it), go to Manila – to this day I can still recall the carnage and mass human suffering of that place. Unlike India, the inner peace of the population was not present and that is a dangerous, scary situation.
Bottom line, I have a richer, deeper, set of gratitude values as a result of my visit to Hyderabad."
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