Today, I decided to walk into work to grab some pictures with my camera. Before I walked, I was sure to hydrate with bottled of water from the hotel since the thermometer was already reading ninety plus degrees. I also weighted down my backpack with bottled water to ensure that I had enough water to make it through the day. Clean water is a commodity in India as it is in many parts of the world, and drinking the local water or select local foods can leave you with Bombay Belly.  If you are one of the unfortunates to get struck with Bombay Belly, it can be a week long event where anything you eat or drink immediately goes out the other end leading to severe dehydration and weakness.  One of my coworkers takes India to the extreme and packs his own food. Others limit their diets to the buffet at the Westin and the few restaurants located inside. Watching what you eat, and drink is an important aspect of traveling in India, and I make sure I always have enough water to make it through the day. 

India is hot. The heat is dry. Walking to work is not for the weak. The lack of humidity gives Hyderabad the feeling someone left their gas furnace on and this trip. The heat is not the only thing that is overwhelming. When I left the hotel, my lungs were filled with distinct smell of Hyderabad, a mix of burning metal, dust and decay that permeates my clothes as well we my eyes and nose.  The sparse rain this time of year keeps a layer of dry dust on the ground or it lingers on anything that sits idle too long.

My mile walk between the hotel and the office is filled with adventure since it lacks sidewalks in some areas and most of all, it lacks cross walks. Like the cars in Hyderabad, there is a natural flow to walking across the street, and the cars tend to give way to the pedestrian flow. This is not to be fooled with pedestrians getting a complete right of way, and there is an art of understanding when you can go. For instance, its okay to start walking if the traffic is light or if enough people gather and are ready to walk across, but heavy traffic won't yield to a single walker.  When you get this art down, walking across any street is possible, but it requires a leap of faith.

Hyderabad's roads during early rush hour

To avoid the traffic there were a number of people asleep in their cars. I also caught a few rickshaw drivers sleeping in their cars too. It made me wonder if the rickshaw is the Indian version of a mobile home.  I also wondered how some of the people who drove their cars in early could sleep in the heat. A few of them removed their shoes and stuck their feet out the windows and through their open doors. Others just rolled down the windows and took nap. Either way, the heat was intense. I'm surprised none of them went into the air conditioning of the office to sleep before work or get work done.  To me it defeated the purpose of getting to work early if you stay in the car and sleep. 

A rickshaw driver sleeps before the start of rush hour traffic

Minus the lack of crosswalks and lights at major intersections, the walk to my office is very American and clean. Most of Hytech City, the technical center of Hyderabad that I work, is covered with colonies of corporations than maintain the sidewalks, security and general cleanliness of the areas. In my daily commute, I normally leave one of these colonies only to enter into a new one about half a mile away.  American companies dot the skyline with their billboards like Novartis, Oracle, Microsoft, Citibank and others. Street sweepers spend their mornings using their branch and straw brooms sweeping the sidewalks while early morning employees drink sugarcane water and tea from a local road side vendor.

For the people that work in this area of Hyderabad, it would remind anyone of a typical American city.  The area I work in, the Phoenix district speaks a lot for the rebirth of Hyderabad as a center of trade and commerce in the world. At it's peak, Hyderabad was a wealthy, mostly independent region of India and the home of two of the largest diamond mines in the world.  Even after the decline of the Mughal rulers of India, Hyderabad remained a rich interior princely state inside India untouched by British control and the East India Company until 1805. During this time, the Nizam of Hyderabad still ruled of the region maintaining a Persian influence in the area, but lost control of parts of the  the Deccan plateau after going bankrupt from the Susidiary Forces agreement it signed with the East India company that required Hyderabad to use East India Company forces to protect the region.  The rulers of Hyderabad, the Nizams,  developed schools, roads and railways, patronned the arts and developed Hyderabad into a a bustling metropolis during a time when  many parts of India declined into a large peasantry class, Hyderabad  comparatively thriving. 

In 1948, the Indian Union marched on Hyderabad and deposed it's leader, the Nizam of Hyderabad after the Nizam decided he would not join the rest of the Indian Union and remain an independent country inside India. During this time, the Nizam was the richest man in the world, but The Indian Union feared the  formation of a separate country inside of India proper and annexed Hyderabad after deposing the Nizam and invading Hyderabad. 1948 marked a decline for Hyderabad as it joined the rest of the Indian states to form what we now know as modern India. Here is a quote from the chairman of India's construction drafting committee about the splendor of 1948 Hyderabad:

"Hyderabad has all the amenities which Delhi has and it is a far better city than Delhi. It has all the grandeur which Delhi has. Buildings are going cheap and they are really beautiful buildings, far superior to those in Delhi. The only thing that is wanting is a Parliament House which the Government of India can easily build."

  From 1948 until the DotCom boom, Hyderabad was on the decline, but Hyderabad began to rise again from the ashes to become a powerhouse of IT consulting and pharmaceutical development. Today, there is one Hyderabad that straddles two different worlds because of the economic disparity between the educated an uneducated within the city. The education system in India does not reach the poor or many of the rural villages, and churches are a major provider to the children of India. When I spoke to one of my coworkers about my plans for the weekend, he asked if he could go. This caught me off guard, but he was very quick to point out the Christian influence on his life, especially his education.  In India, an education is the difference between living under a tarp or tin shack and living in a modern house or subdivision.

When I ended my evening, I met with one of the Christian missionaries here, Stanley Bantu, to exchange the donated school supplies, underwear and other items I collected from some amazing people for my trip. Unfortunately, Stanley woke me from jet lag, so I didn't get a picture with him, but a few things stuck with me from our short time together. Stanley;s smile never left his face when we spoke, and he was eager to get me connected with the mission here in India as well as visit the orphanages and ministries this weekend. I could see the enthusiasm he has for the work he does, and this put a smile on my face. 

View of a park new my 

Tomorrow, I plan to post some of the pictures of the housing just around the corner from my hotel that shows a different side of how people live in this rising city.