I have a friend in Hyderabad named Marisa. She works at the US Consulate here and her job is to interview people who want visas. I met her back in October during my first few months here. Anyway, Marisa has served her two years time in Hyderabad and her assignment ends next week :-( so she will move back to D.C.
Since she is leaving soon Marisa decided to throw a small get together on Friday night. Where she invited her other co-workers from the consulate. We got a chance to meet four newcomers to Hyderabad, who all speak Telugu! I thought it was super cool that they spent the last 6 months learning Telugu and they are really very fluent. In fact, they know more vocabulary than me. I suppose it is cause they learned it formally whereas I am limited to the vocabulary people have spoken to me so far.
When we told Andrew (one of the Hyderabad newbies) that we are going to exhibition tomorrow and he should join us. Andrew responded "what are they exhibiting?!" HAH.. this made me laugh =D
Exhibition is like a giant carnival in Hyderabad. There is this place called exhibition grounds, which is a huge area, in middle of the city. The exhibition, which is a carnival/vendor fair runs for 1.5 months every year, around this time. Apparently during the rest of the year the grounds are empty. This seems like a waste of space to me but it seems they make way too much money in that 1.5 months they don't even bother for the rest of the year. There must have been 25,000+ people there last night and the entrance free is Rs. 20. Inside there are games, rides, food and lots of vendors. So you can imagine how much money they make.
Let me tell you the exhibition is like Disneyland minus the Disney characters walking around. Obviously its a little more dirty cause its India. But the food is also infinitely better, cause its India. =p
There are 1000+ vendors who set up for the month to sell clothes, toys, perfumes, fabric, house decorations, vagera vagera (btw this is the word for etc here). There are rides including the giant ferris wheel. There is one "show" called the well of death. In this show they have 4 cars and 5 motorcycles driving really fast in a small area. The thrill is that the vehicles miss each other by just a little bit.
I went to the fair with Aditya and Laddu. As we were about to get on the ferris wheel there was a lady in a burkha in front of us in line, her mother came up to her and told her "don't sit in a compartment with boys, sit in one with girls only." But the lady did not have any option she had to sit with me, Adi and Laddu. I entered the compartment and proceeded to sit across from her and she says "Aunty, can you sit next to me." !!!!! I could not imagine, sitting there in my cute little kurti, in what world I could have been perceived as an auntie!!!! I was so angry and what made it worse is that as the ferris moved faster and higher she had the nerve to hold onto me after calling me Aunty!! UGH
At the exhibition the three of us managed to consume: cotton candy, mirchi bajji, samosa, alu toast (which was spelled alu toust), noodles, manchurian, pineapple juice, orange juice, strawberry juice, kulfi and sweet lassi. I think there was more, I am just forgetting. I just wanted to say that strawberry juice in India is awesome!
We also rode the giant wheel and this other ride which is similar to something in Great America. Laddu was a little scaredy-cat. =)
After all the excitement, I spent over an hour searching for a white/off-white cotton saree but didn't manage to select one. I ended up buying 3 pairs of earrings instead. Poor Adi and Laddu joined me on this endeavor. =p thanks guys!!
Overall it was SUPER fun! And I would definitely recommend anyone in Hyderabad during January/February to attend exhibition!!!
Since she is leaving soon Marisa decided to throw a small get together on Friday night. Where she invited her other co-workers from the consulate. We got a chance to meet four newcomers to Hyderabad, who all speak Telugu! I thought it was super cool that they spent the last 6 months learning Telugu and they are really very fluent. In fact, they know more vocabulary than me. I suppose it is cause they learned it formally whereas I am limited to the vocabulary people have spoken to me so far.
When we told Andrew (one of the Hyderabad newbies) that we are going to exhibition tomorrow and he should join us. Andrew responded "what are they exhibiting?!" HAH.. this made me laugh =D
Exhibition is like a giant carnival in Hyderabad. There is this place called exhibition grounds, which is a huge area, in middle of the city. The exhibition, which is a carnival/vendor fair runs for 1.5 months every year, around this time. Apparently during the rest of the year the grounds are empty. This seems like a waste of space to me but it seems they make way too much money in that 1.5 months they don't even bother for the rest of the year. There must have been 25,000+ people there last night and the entrance free is Rs. 20. Inside there are games, rides, food and lots of vendors. So you can imagine how much money they make.
Let me tell you the exhibition is like Disneyland minus the Disney characters walking around. Obviously its a little more dirty cause its India. But the food is also infinitely better, cause its India. =p
There are 1000+ vendors who set up for the month to sell clothes, toys, perfumes, fabric, house decorations, vagera vagera (btw this is the word for etc here). There are rides including the giant ferris wheel. There is one "show" called the well of death. In this show they have 4 cars and 5 motorcycles driving really fast in a small area. The thrill is that the vehicles miss each other by just a little bit.
I went to the fair with Aditya and Laddu. As we were about to get on the ferris wheel there was a lady in a burkha in front of us in line, her mother came up to her and told her "don't sit in a compartment with boys, sit in one with girls only." But the lady did not have any option she had to sit with me, Adi and Laddu. I entered the compartment and proceeded to sit across from her and she says "Aunty, can you sit next to me." !!!!! I could not imagine, sitting there in my cute little kurti, in what world I could have been perceived as an auntie!!!! I was so angry and what made it worse is that as the ferris moved faster and higher she had the nerve to hold onto me after calling me Aunty!! UGH
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| Me with a cotton candy mustache |
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| Adi & Laddu |
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| View from the top of the Ferris wheel! |
Overall it was SUPER fun! And I would definitely recommend anyone in Hyderabad during January/February to attend exhibition!!!
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