The roads taken

I remember wanting to visit at least five places over the year 2008. Turns out I did much more than that. I almost did a tour each month and some of them were the best places I have been to. My personal favorite being the village tour. Traveling somehow has become almost an addictive habit with me this year. Every month or so, my itch to get out of the place and see the world out there just increases. Listed are all of my "getting outs" over the year.

• January - The Boat trip along river Godavari from Bhadrachalam
  
• February - Talakona Forests and the Horsely hills in South Andhra Pradesh
  
• March - Trip to Bangalore and the trek to Palad. This was an amazing trek that lasted 2 days when we walked over 30 kms in the jungles where Veerappan once roamed.
  
• April - NagarjunSagar. This was one of those boring trips done in the summer heats!
  
• June - Mumbai and Pune.
  
• July - The road trip to Kuntala and Pochera falls. Water soaked and wind hit all the way!
  
• August - The road trip to Araku and Vizag. Another one of those whimsical trips which involved visiting places with as few people as possible.
  
• December - Compensated for a drought of 4 months by going to 2 places in the same month. Made a tour of srilanka initially. Though only for a short period, it was fun! Then was the village tour to the end.

May the Vagabond prevail!

My culinary Experiments

Before you people judge! Take a look at the Pics :D

Now after a few ages, I decided to re-enter i once used to rule the roost - The Kitchen! .. OK just kidding, I barely ever cooked. In fact the best I ever did prior to this must have been the overcooked ready to cook soups. Anyway, this day I decided I will cook an opulent 5 course meal. First off I prepared my self a fake chef hat just to make things look a little more serious. I'm sure you can spot it with the word CHEF written on top, just so that you understand I was the one in charge of the food.

My theme for the day was that typical 70s American food with a fusion of global cuisine. The items I prepared were chicken steak, boiled vegetables, mashed potato, cold salad and garlic bread. All at the same time. Oh and ya the Dessert! It took me about two and a half hours to get to that picture with 4 plates. All except one were inspired ideas. The dessert is a completely new experiment which luckily did not prove too detrimental. I had some 5 grain Britannia biscuit on top of which i put a slice of strawberry cake and then sweet whipped cream on top and cut strawberries on top to garnish! Its called the Chef's Mess! (Courtesy : The TINY devil)

Rustic Encounters

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu

This statement summarizes what we had been upto the last 4 days. Here are some of our goals before we set out on this trip:

1. No fixed plan
2. Do what we like
3. Spend the least
4. No certain destination
5. Eat only the Local food
6. No private transport
7. Walk as much as possible
   

Ironically it turned out to be a lot better than any of those planned outings and way beyond our expectations. We spent about 1200Rs in 4 days. The itinerary we followed was purely out of whim! Never was traveling this much fun. It gave us complete freedom and allowed us to do certain things that we only wish we could.

All our transport through out the trip was restricted to RTC Buses or Sharing autos. We have even hitched a tractor ride once. Infact there was this time when we were waiting in a bus stop and we happened to see a movie poster showing some random movie. We decided that we will stay back that night in that town watch the night show of that movie. We had about 2 hours before the movie and so we went and sat at the railway station of Nayudupeta, the town we stayed in, watching the goods trains and express trains fly by. We even purchased a platform ticket to do the same. It was a spectacle watching the slow town life where people get together in the evenings discussing their daily turn of events.

We ended up in the Tada Falls on the first day which was a difficult trek. The route to the Falls was an amazing one. The first 3 kms were through a jungle followed by a km where we had to cross the stream through the boulders. The night was something else. We arranged for a fire by the stream and we sat by it till 9 and stayed out the night in a tree house. Sleeping with the constant rumbling of the stream, looking up to the clearest skies I have ever seen and on a tree 10 meters above the ground is something I can't possibly describe in words. We even found a beach in a remote village called Tupilapalem. The shallow and crystal clear beach with its moderate waves was ideal for fun.

We ended up walking roughly about 45 kms in the 4 days that we roamed. We saw over a thousand stars in the sky amidst a forest, something which a city never permits us to do! We walked about 8 kms of the sea shore in search of sea shells. We sat watching birds in a sanctuary for about 2 hours. When was the last time you ever had time for these?

Do check out the pics at Tour Pics

The Rustic Encounters - Day 1

It was 3 of us coming from 3 different places and bound for one common destination, The unknown. We spread an AP map before us at the Breakfast place and decided that we head towards the east coast on our first leg of journey. We hitched a bus ride to Tada which was on the border of AP and TN and decided we go up north from along the coast.

3 hours of a rocking bus ride later, some guy mentioned of a good waterfall near Varadiahpalem. It was only later that we came to know that these were the Tada Falls. We hired an auto to take us there for 150Rs To and Fro. After about 4 kms from the point the auto dropped us off, we reached a stream and a Tree House. The actual falls were another 3 kms from here. The tree house was more of a platform to construct a rope way across the trees. We negotiated with the officials to let us stay there and the charge was 150 per head. We spoke with the local watchman for food and that guy agreed to make us some at 50 per head. After all the arrangements for the night stay were made, we set out for the falls.

The route to the Falls was an amazing one. The first 3 kms were through a jungle followed by a km where we had to cross the stream through the boulders. It was quite a risky one as the boulders were slippery and hence the fun. It took us about 45 minutes to trudge the final stretch. The falls were really something of a spectacle. The waterfall was cold, high enough and clear. We stayed there for about an hour. We had a tough time fending off the the monkeys who tried stealing things off. We returned back to the tree house by 6 and it was almost twilight. Dinner was served by 7 and that was one of the best meals we have ever had. All we had was breakfast since morning, So owe to the hunger, tiredness or the taste we ate up like there was no tomorrow!

The night was something else. We arranged for a fire by the night and we sat by it till 9. We had a tough time letting the fire burn as we had to find the appropriate wood. We crept up the tree house and decided to call it a day. Sleeping with the constant rumbling of the stream, looking up to the clearest skies I have ever seen and on a tree 10 meters above the ground is something I can't possibly describe in words.

Do check out the pics at Tour Pics

Sketches

Outcry

The day after Mumbai blasts.. India was in a state of shock! Again! Lots going on peoples mind! Here is some of it..

Everyone is asking the same question .. What can I do? I pesonally am in search of the answer

"80 ppl stopped breathing in 8 seconds in an 8 square mile radius ..... Is this the India we wanted ?!"

"Stop this charade"

"Watever!!"

"Cowards Strike again"

"We are resilient by force...not by Nature !!!!!!!!"

"Fuck!"

"Crisis in Mumbai: When will it all end??"

Faces!

Some of my drawings!








Courtesy: Andrew Loomis Books!

The CAT Centre Casting

After 3 years of writing CAT, I was just sitting and wondering what is it that I have achieved. As i thought about it, there were only 2 things that came to my mind. The first is what everybody gets when they don't get anything else .. Experience. The second is what i will be explaining in detail.

The first two times that I have given CAT, I knew there were 2 kinds of people who gave the exam.

The Normal: Now these guys are the regular Jack and Joe. These are the guys with bored looks and have nothing better than wait for the creepy looking invigilator to distribute the paper. Nothing out of the blue and no surprises here. You find most of them pursuing their individual trades. Here are some of them.

• Hair stylists: They find nothing better apart from meddling with their hair.
• Ornithologists: They are also popularly known as the "bird watchers". They critically analyze the demographics of the room. They are always on the look out for "chicks" (Birds aren't they?)
• Astrologers: The star gazers are most commonly found ones. Irrespective of whether they sit beside a window or not, they just have to gaze out of the room deep into the galaxies.. or so I assume!
• The Drillers: They specialize in blue color jobs and can invariably be found drilling inside their teeth, nose so on and so forth. I am sure its not crude oil that they are in search of though! No more questions on this
• Finally there are those who find nothing else to do but keep staring at others. Now i don't need to tell you who they are.

The Abnormal: Mama's Boys. You can always spot these kind easily. They are the most unstable elements in the room. Fiddling and fretting come as second nature to them. I actually found some queer characters in my exam rooms. Item pieces in short!

• I have seen people who have brought down their whole family including their distant 23rd cousin to the exam center so that they can wait there for 3 hours.
• This guy walks into my room who has got a bottle of glucose, A Lays chips packet (20 Rs Big Pack) and a box of chewing gum .. all so that he doesn't fall asleep which is quite ironical.
• The common among the lot are those who virtually set up a stationary shop within the exam room. They typically carry about 15 pencils, (3 less than pencils/2) number of erasers and 3 watches. (don't laugh... what if 2 stop working? They computed and there is a probability of 0.0000.....06) A little exaggeration wouldn't hurt!
• There was a female sitting opposite me who had photos of lord Shiva and Ganesha in front her. (A sensitive angle which i would not drill deep into)

Today i met the 3rd kind, The Eccentric. Fortunately there is no better word to describe them. Given a venue such as the CAT examination center, you sure don't expect them seen that way. Some of those bonkers that i have seen today..

• A huge guy wearing a skin tight T shirt, shades at the back of his head and finally khakis. Now these khakis deserve a special mention. I have known only 2 kinds of people wearing these. The LTTE Tigers of Srilanka and those who find the khakis disposed by the LTTE. I sure wonder which of them he belongs to!
  
• A pierced brow, near open shirt with 2 huge metallic skull chains hanging around his neck was the order of the day for another dude.
• I understand that we are advised to wear comfortable clothing for the exam. I never knew low waists, skin tights and sleeveless Ts were that comfortable. She sure made some of them watching her uncomfortable.

Food for Hyderabad's nocturnal

An exclusive edition for all those midnight vampires prowling in the city searching for food at midnights. There are quite a few restaurants offering midnight biryani and other eclectic varieties. Here is the list of a few that I know of.

Ameerpet - Begumpet - Panjagutta

• ITC Kakatiya's Deccan Pavilion, Begumpet - It is actually a Coffee shop, A coffee shop with a difference serving "mood cuisine" for your every mood. However it has the best midnight buffet in town. Costs about 600Rs. Begins at around 12 midnight. Deccan Pavilion's midnight biryani, and their grand buffet with Indian, Oriental, Italian, Central European and American dishes make for unforgettable odd-hour delicacies.
• Promenade, Aditya Park Inn, Ameerpet - Their midnight biryani is called Midnight Masala and hosts a wide variety of dishes on the menu. The buffet here should be costing around 500Rs though I am not very sure. This hotel is located on the road opposite Satyam theatre.
• Tulips, Green Park, Begumpet - A relatively smaller and a cheaper version of the buffet mentioned prior to this. They have about 7-8 items with their main focus on Hyderabadi biryani. This would not hurt your pockets too much and costs about 225Rs. It is open till 3 in the night.

Banjara Hills - Jubilee Hills - Madhapur

• Ohri's Banjara, Banjara hills Rd no 12 - This is the place I eat out midnights most frequently. The reason this place is so good is not just the food factor but the havmor ice cream parlor open till 3 PM. They have the best ice creams to choose from like Awful Awful, Bulls Eye muffin.. Oh and by the way, the buffet is decent (Read as nothing too great) and costs you about 250Rs.
• Windows of the World, Hi-Tech city, Madhapur - Right in the heart of the Geek Kingdom, WoW serves good(read better than decent) midnight buffet. This should not cost you more than 250Rs. They also have an alacarte which is worth a visit.
• The Square, Novotel, Madhapur - Another coffee shop turned midnight food spot. I am sure I need not talk about the pricing aspect. But that aside, the food is supposedly good (never tried) and is famous for its desserts and seafood.
  

Secunderabad - Tankbund - Lakdikapul

• The Pickels, Basera, Near clock tower - They have a good variety of fish and meat starters. The food tastes great and isnt too much on the expensive side. True value for money. Both the buffet and a-la-carte menu are worth giving a try.
• Anmol International, Tankbund road - with an insipid menu this is one of the lesser known spots for midnight biryani. The food is bad and so is the variety. Costs about 200 bucks and is a strict No - No!
• Salt and Pepper, The central court, Lakdikapul - This is a 24 hrs. cafe with midnight dinner. They have a unique round the clock alacarte snacks menu running. The midnight buffet comes at a price of 150Rs but is surprisingly good. Do try the snacks though!

There are certain other options available such as

• The bread omlette guy near Himalaya book store, Nagarjuna Circle
• The omni-present Kwality walls icecream guys
• Hotel Mariotts midnight buffet (need to explore)
• Taste of Hyderabad - Midnight biryani takeaway in Ameerpet
• Midnight - Dial-A-Meal, Waiter on Wheels, offers home delivery at 66667788

If anyone knows of any other places, do leave a comment so that it can be added...

The Indian tale of oil subsidy

Here are some facts about India's oil consumption:

The Situation*:

• India is the sixth largest consumer of oil in the world, using 2.6 million barrels per day, or 3 per cent of global demand
• India imports more than 70 per cent of its oil and charges retail consumers of petrol and diesel less than half global market prices
• At current crude oil prices, India's total fuel subsidy this year will be around 17.5 billion dollars, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product

The Numbers: If we see the numbers from 2002, petrol prices have risen by 86.8% where as diesel rose by 116.6%. However crude rose from 20$ a barrel to a whopping 140$ which is a 600% increase. So where is all the excess coming from? Ans: Government subsidies. It amounts to about 77000 crores of subsidies which are partially redeemed by Govt and the rest as losses on the books of public sector oil companies.

The Consequence: Inflation and rocketing fuel prices are almost directly as a result of this. The prices have not been passed on to the consumer. Instead, on the facet of serving the public or call it the fear of loosing the "Seat", the government has decided to bear the burden along with public sector companies like ONGC, HPCL.

From an economic perspective, passing on the costs to the consumer could result in higher costs of travel and hence greater inflation. However, such a prolonged burden on the government has sent the oil prices sky high and resulted in inflation. Such low cost of oil products also deters efforts to develop alternative sources of energy.

The Irony: Picture this situation - A guy comes in his 100CC moped, shells out 56 bucks per liter and curses the government for exorbitant oil prices. A Merc rolls by shells out the same 56 bucks per liter and the only thing on his mind is the scratch he got on his car because of a "stupid" motor-bike. Why should someone who can afford the luxury of a Mercedes Benz or any car for that instance be subsidized? Why should a guy who goes around with a fuel economy of 70KMPL be paying the same as a guy who goes at 5KMPL? What logical sense does that make?

The Solution: Given a subsidized price, the government is not offering a reason for anyone to avoid personal transport and switch to mass transit. No subsidy should be offered to those who use cars. Company cabs can be an exception. Luxury segment bikes also may not need a subsidy. Ex. 150 CC and below could be entitled to a subsidy. Unless the government takes some serious steps towards this, inequality will and so will inflation.

The Formality: Disclaimer: I am solely responsible for any of the opinions expressed.
* Source: globeinvestor.com

A story of a Night-out, a highway and a Bus!

It was 4.30 in the night... on the Hyderabad Vikarabad highway! 2 cars were cruising along at 80 kmph.. all of a sudden one of the cars meets a bus coming from the opposite side on a narrow bridge and what was to follow was described as a "near death experience" (as described by Gundz). Sounds like a Gult movie flick with an awesome screenplay?? .. The whole story follows ... read on!

There were quite a few members of the Ol' gang who happened to be in Hyderabad on a particular weekend. So some of us decided that we all meet somewhere and do something exciting. As always 'something' always turns out unplanned and a fusion of a series of whims. The planned meet turned out to be a real crowd puller. What initially was intended for 4-5 guys ended up with about 10 of us. Busy people traveled from far off lands to attend this sammelan leaving their assignments behind.

Strangely as planned, all of us met at Hotel Paradise for a round of Hyderabadi biriyani. The next destination was Runway 9. After 2 hours of karting, TT and snookers we all sat down discussing the plan for the night. Given that it was raining all through the day, we left our bikes at a Kompally and stuck with our cars. We then decided that we head for the city and decide the next course of action over dinner. We ended up eating a 5 course meal for about 3 hours. Soups, starters from Peking Palace, Ameerpet and Icecreams from Ohri's Banjara.

At 12.30 we left the city to go to a small hillock located beyond Shamirpet. For 3 hours in the pitch of the night we sat there discussing about college.. jobs .. anything and everything! At about 3.30 we decided that we go and see the Anantagiri forest near Vikarabad. Little did we know what was going to happen next!

Anantagiri is about 70 kms from the city. Driving at 4 in the morning was no easy task.. The road was almost smooth with some exceptions. This actually happened when we almost reached Anantagiri. We went ahead of the Indica and so all I have is a third person account of what happened. The road was really smooth and so the cars were cruising at 80kmph. At one point there was a bus coming in the opposite direction... It was not untill the car almost reached a narrow bridge that they realised that it could not have accomodated both the vehicles. The car managed to stay on the road... the left set of tyres hit the parapet on the bridge leaped half a meter in the air and landed. The rim was bent and tyre punctured.

After half an hour of repair, it was finally fixed and we all strode back ending up skipping the whole forest part. But that was definitely enough adventure for all of us! Some of them were almost sorry that the car did not fall into pit below .. where some where least bothered and busy in scaling their own peaks when others were repairing the car!

That my friends is the story of a night-out, a highway and a bus!

Kuntala - Hyderabad : The Road Trip

Blame it on Murphy's law but that was just the best weather to sleep. Rainy.. dark.. cloudy... and Cold! Well it could be attributed to the fact that we all woke up at 5.30 to begin our trip. With hazy eyes and heavy hearts, we hit the road. We were out of the city by 6.30 as we cruised along the Medchal highway. A couple of drizzles and a railway gate later, we stopped at an obscure village to have awesome sambar idly and piping hot Upma!

Originally we planned to cover the stretch of 250 Kms from Hyderabad to Kuntala falls in 4 -5 hours. But given our regular pit-stops every other hour to admire mother nature took us about 7 hours to reach Nirmal which is 210 from Hyderabad. We stopped to admire lush green meadows at one point and an old dilapidated sentry tower which resembled the scenes from "Dil Chahta hai" a few kms later. These detours turned out brilliant!





Once we were at Nirmal we finished with out lunch at Hotel Mayuri which was supposed to be the best in town(hated it though). We picked up a few beers and headed for Pochera Waterfalls.
The route to the waterfalls was pretty scenic and also included a small stretch of ghats along the NH5. There was greenery all around. The whole day we never caught sight of the sun which made it even more perfect for such a trip.

Though there wasn't too much water around, we enjoyed getting soaked under the water and even ventured into areas we werent officially supposed to go. After about 2 hours at this place we proceeded to Kuntala which was 10 kms off the highway. The walk down to Kuntala was about a 1000 steps and the waterfall was the highest in AP. We once again treaded on the slippery rocks, and climbed the rocks along the waterfall. We managed to give the camera a dip in the holy Kuntala water after which it refused to function anymore.

The most difficult part of the journey was the night drive along the NH5. We started back to Hyderabad at 6.30 and had our dinner at Kamareddi. Owing to the asshole lorry drivers who wouldn't dim their lights on the highway and the heavy downpour, we reached Hyderabad at 11.00.


Route: Hyderabad - Kamareddi - Nirmal - Pochera - Kuntala - Hyderabad.
Vehicle : Maruti 800 (10 years old) - A whopping 17kmpl !!
Cost: 4 of us and 600 for each including fuel, food and beer!

Top 10 Hyderabad Hangouts

Bored in the weekends?
Wondering what to do with friends over spare time?
Here is my choice of some of the best hangouts in the city.

1. Runway 9: Being a speed maniac, Runway 9 tops my list. 17 Kms from the city on the Medchal Highway, this place offers the largest Karting track in India. Apart from Go-Karting, Runway 9 also offers various fun activities such as Foose ball, TT, Skating, Pool parlor, archery and many more. It also hosts an Inhouse Pub called Chequered Flag and a restaurant. Atleast 3 hours of guarenteed fun!!
   
2. Alleygator: If playing snookers, bowling and video games is all you want to do the whole day, then Alleygator is the place. This one stop entertainer is dotted with four lines of bowling alleys, six pool tables, a wide variety of video games etc. The cafeteria here serves mouth watering food. The alleygator also has a 34-seater private theatre which is offered on hire. It is located in Secunderabad on SD Road, beside the Clock tower.
3. Xtreme Sports Bar: This is THE place for all those who enjoy couple of beers and sports alike. With huge screens all around, Sports can become a lot of fun here.. more so because of the accompaniments . Do make it a point to go to this pub if you are a sports fan!!
4. Drive around Shamirpet: Its a pleasant drive which is about 35-40 Kms from the city. Shamirpet Lake is the best spot around there where you can even camp and do some hiking activities. There are quite a few Dhabas on the way where you can have food.
5. Speed Boat Ride: If speed is your idea of fun, then this is a must try. You hitch a speed boat ride from Lumbini park on tankbund and circle around the Hussain Sagar.
6. Prasad's IMAX: This place turned out to be one of the hottest spots in the city very fast. Enjoyed by kids and dudes alike (for totally different reasons ofcourse!), Prasads has all the ingredients to become a converging centre for fun-filled activities. Right from movies to videogames, icecreams, tattoos, scary houses, 3D... 4D... 96D, it seems to accomodate everything in that four storeyed building.
7. Ocean Park, Treasure Island and Jalvihar: Like in any metro, Hyderabad also plays host to a couple of water theme parks where one can get indulged in wave pools, dance floors, thrill rides and a lot more. You can easily spend a day at any of these. Entry ticket is about 150-200 bucks each.
8. Gandipet Lake: Similar to the Shamirpet lake, this is also a huge lake on the outskirts at about 20 Kms from the city. There are many eateries around so food is never a problem. The surroundings here are very pleasant and landscaped gardens with a swimming pool are among the recently added attractions. You can laze around, explore around the lake.
9. Resorts: There are many resorts that have sprawled in and around Hyderabad. Pragati, Celebrity and Dream Valley to name a few. Swimming pools, billiards, TT and various other sporting activities are present in almost all of these resorts. These are more fun when visited in a group of 5-6.
10. Lounge Habits: These are your great escape from the hustle and bustle of urban living - watch movies on home theater systems, play XBOX/WII on the same, Board Games, Pool, TT, Foose ball and read books - over good food and great company.try It out.. Its FUN!

Any other places that you know of .. Drop in a comment.

Dude Code

This is nothing new. It has been in existence for centuries now. Some of it in writing and most otherwise. Some of these codes have already been discussed elsewhere where as some are new. This is a recompilation with a special Commandment addendum.

Dude Code:

1. A dude shall always abide by the Dude-Code (A primer)
   
2. A dude's sister, mother, girlfriend, Ex-girlfriend or brother are strictly off limits no matter how hot they might be
3. Dudes don't buy birthday presents. Infact even remembering a dude's birthday is a sin. However they are entitled to a B'day bash at the pub.
   
4. A dude shall at all times say "Yes"
5. A dude shall at all times alert another dude of the presence of hot chicks (Clocking is the preferred mode)
6. A dude is intentionally or unintentionally forbidden from touching another dude in ANY capacity, including but not limited to: High-five, fist bump or the congratulatory pat
7. A dude shall, at no time comment upon another dude's attire
8. When questioned by a dude's girlfriend, you need not and should not provide any information as to his whereabouts. You rather deny that you ever knew him in the first place
   
9. A dude shall always reciprocate a round of drinks with another dude
10. A dude does not like to be talked at while in the urinal. An almost imperceptible nod is all the conversation you need.
11. When in the urinal a dude is expected to move into the geographically farthest urinal from another dude
12. In cases of break-up, A dude can only offer a "that sucks dude" and/or copious quantity of beer. Any other comment about the above mentioned break-up is strictly forbidden
13. Moaning about the brand of free beer in a dude's fridge is forbidden. However complain at will if the temperature is unsuitable
14. If a man's fly is down, that's his problem, you didn't see anything.
15. A dude never needs to hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last slice of pizza, but not both, that's just greedy.
16. Thou shalt not buy a car in the colors of pink, lime green, orange or sky blue.
17. Whenever a dude is in an ethical dilemma, HE SHALL ABIDE BY THE CODE NO.1
    

=============================================

Dude commandments are those that are unavoidable no matter what. This is still in the compilation phase and any other commandments are sincerely welcome.

Dude Commandments:

1. No matter how much you shake, the last drop always goes down the pants.
2. Gravity always takes toll on dudes' eyes when speaking to those of the opposite sex.
   

The Tankbund night-out

The only thing that was preplanned to what actually followed was the movie "The Dark Knight". Here is a chronological turn of events and we ended up staying all night!

5.30 pm: There we were frantic calls as nobody had an idea what the schedule was going to be.

8.30 pm: We initially went to the Seventh Heaven in Panjagutta where we kicked off with a chicken Cantonese soup and Chicken Tikka. Owing to the penchant for Chinese I suggested that we go to Peking palace in Ameerpet which serves mouth watering Chinese dishes. Moreover the fact that the food here wasn’t too great didn’t help the case either.

9.00 pm: Peking palace has the best seafood soup and is must try for any of you who adore Chinese food. After a sumptuous dinner, we suddenly got the itch to drink late at night after the movie and hence went to pick up some rum.

10.30 pm: we finally headed for IMAX. The dark knight was a brilliantly executed movie packed with a series of action scenes and powerful dialogues. Heath Ledger and Christian Bale were near perfect.

1.45 am: We headed home and started hogging upon the Snickers and Twix a friend got for us from US. After about an hour of fooling around, we got bored, tired and hungry all at the same time. So we decided to take a small trip in hunt for food at 2.30 in the night.

2.30 am: We knew a couple of places which were open at 3 in the night and on of them was a bread-omlette guy near PVR central mall. Somehow none of us felt like getting back home. So we thought we go pay the Necklace road and the lonely statues at Tankbund a visit. There were also a couple of suggestions like the shamirpet lake, gandipet lake, durgam cheruvu etc.. but finally we settled for the Tankbund

3.00 am: We sat on the wooden benches by the lake side and started discussing issues ranging from Life at USA to the Best of Hollywood. We spoke about gladiator, departed and matt demon and de caprio and the whole world. We didnt know how time passed and it was 5 before we knew it.

5.00 am: we then decided to walk the whole length of tankbund to and fro which was about 4 kms. By now we were completely exhausted due to lack of sleep and so we thought it was high time for some food again

6.00 am: we headed for Swathi Tiffins, near secunderabad railway station and had steaming hot sambar idly, dosa and a cup of coffee.

That is how we ended up roaming on hyderabad city streets, sleeping on tankbund and saw the sun rise!

P.S: tank bund by night courtesy : http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshapvss/232939128/