One feature that differentiates Hyderabad from the other major Indian urban areas is its almost 50/50 divide between the Telegu-speaking Hindus and the Urdu-speaking Muslims. While there is the occasional bout of communal violence, I think by and large this is an awesome characteristic for the sole reason that it means LOTS AND LOTS of holidays. Almost every weekend is a long weekend during the festival period encompassing Eid, Dussehra, and Diwali which means that currently I’m barely working these days (no jokes about “whats your excuse the rest of the year”).
So yesterday, while you were all “celebrating” Yom Kippur I also had the day off for Dussehra. It was a pretty spectacular day for me because two absolutely unbelievable events that I never though I’d live to see occurred:
- I moved into my VERY OWN APARTMENT. (it’s actually pretty sick…pics 2 come)
- I was stuck in traffic at about 11pm for about an hour. This on its own wouldn’t be unusual except for the fact that the the cause of the traffic wasn’t an accident, a cow, or typical Indian inefficiency. No it was the hordes of people DANCING IN THE STREETS. It was really kind of spectacular to see all these people dancing to loudspeakers (in the rain) next to the Hussain Sagar lake in the middle of the city. This was all leading up to the “immersion” where they drop massive “murthis” or statutes of deities into the lake. I didn’t have my camera on me so these google image pics will have to suffice.
The one other thing I’ve liked about this festival season is how, well, “festive” the city has become. Almost overnight after eid the lights came out and the city puts Christmas in NY to shame (though the tackiness factor is a bit extreme). Sorry for the low quality of the pictures below but I was literally snapping these while whizzing over a flyover in a rickshaw.
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