Fear and Loathing in Hyderabad: Day 1

Day 1

Was woken  up early next morning with pain in my back due to sleeping on those hard train berths. As we were arriving in Hyderabad seeing the amount of kites stuck on wires i made a funny joke about Hrithik Roshan movies. Once down at the station, we waited for some of the seniors searched for a hotel, we checked in and were allotted rooms. I was put up with Manager, which I think was a blessing in disguise. I slept for a couple of hours as everyone got ready and then we proceeded to have a wasteful breakfast which no one liked. Then we hired a bus and went sightseeing.

We first went to Chowmahal Palace which was closed because it was a Friday and despite much pleading weren't let in. Then we walked to Charminar and on the way I bought some sweet off a cart, "Old Lady's Hair" they call it in the local language. Everywhere I looked I saw cops with assault rifles, I think it was due to that Telangana  trouble that was going on and at Namaz time Rapid Action Force (RAF) surrounded the Mecca Masjid (which along with Salarjang Museum
Museum were the 4 great monuments we missed out on).

Charminar was average, faded out structure in the middle of the road which had been horribly vandalized by lover's of the past century and the step were so horribly designed that I would have beheaded the architect had i been King at the time. From there the ladies went shopping for bangles and we were expected to follow but having had such an unsatisfying breakfast went in search for food. We found a place that sold Haleem, a local specialty,   which my droogs had never tasted and freaked out on. But hounded over the phone by Sir and had to hurry and couldn't eat as much as we wanted to. Received a proper shouting when we got back.We proceed to eat lunch, we ordered Beef Jumbo Biryani, which was a tray full of biryani for just
` 180, it was awesome and 6 of us struggled to finish it.

We got back on the bus and I slept on the way to Golconda Fort. The entrance had an awesome structure that echoed claps which could be heard all the way up in the palace and were used as signals in ancient times:  1 clap for King's arrival, 2 for the Queen and 3 for enemy (Queen being one clap less than enemy). We were on a tight budget and couldn't hire a guide and so just walked about hardly understanding anything and knowing what was what. The Top gave us an awesome view of the city and we saw a Telugu movie shooting as we came down but the rest of the place was pretty average.

I again slept on the bus to the Birla temple, where I just followed Roy around as he prayed and stood behind watching him per form archaic rituals. From there we proceeded to Lumbini Garden's to see a laser show, which was like nothing I'd seen before and was a true highlight of the day. It had me hoping I'd smoked the tea I had before I went there coz we would have truly tripped out.. We'd run out of time to go boating to the Buddha statue, which really disappointed me as he is the only religious founder I, being the Militant Atheist that I am truly respect, we returned to the hotel.

Once back I went straight to my room, got out my works and proceeded to Bad Man's room, where he was put up with Army Man. Nitya and he snuck in 5 quarters of Old Tavern. A I started to roll the joint I was struck by a severe case of the shakes, almost as bad as Parkinsons and had to instruct Bad how to to roll. Once rolled I stashed the joint back in my room and we proceeded to buy dinner.

We bought three full meals and returned to Bad's room, dimmed down the lights and started drinking as Manager sat aside watching Ghost Rider on tv. Me beikng the social drinker that I am held on to my first glass as they finished 3 1/2 bottles, then I finished what was left of 4th taking whiskey shots which burned my throat nicely. I took my share of the 5th bottle and proceeded to share my meal with Manager, who now was watching the cricket match, India was losing and it depressed me, so I sat with my back to the TV. We just about stashed away the bottles and dispossed the glasses when MRP and Ray being the respectable seniors that they were, sloshed themselves, walked in trying to find booze on us and found nothing.

I returned to my room, took a large dump in the toilet while trying to read The Great Gatsby but giving up coz I was too drunk and went to sleep, still feeling the shake of the train and hoping that the entire day had been just a dream, any moment I would be wake up still on the train and get to do the entire day over again and correct the 3 mistakes of that day: not carrying my new Sony Handycam, not eating more Haleem and not smoking up before going to the laser show

Fear and Loathing in Hyderabad: Prologue

        Disclaimer: This is either a fictional account of an actual trip or an actual account of a fictional trip

Prologue

I'm done with that hell of a college, but still stuck to the same campus though. And one thing i noticed is that it is way way more peaceful in the evening/night. Also its way more to keep up the attendance when the college starts at 5 in the evening rather than 8 in the morning. Also, the park is now in ruins. But this isn't about all that shit

 This about our college trip to Hyderabad. We were set to board the train at 6 pm on the 20th of January 2011. There were 27 of us in total and I'll try to recall whoever I can remember. There were the teachers: Sir & Sister. The Seniors : From 3rd Year: Ray, MRP, The Bong, Mr. Black, Tweedledum & Tweedledee and two other I always keep getting confused between. 2nd Year: Two Pairs of lovebirds who never mingled with us (or should i say two pairs of Servants and Mistresses), Senior Citizen and Accomplice and off course the guy who got things done. From my class there was the girls: Swede and Morticia and finally my new set of droogs: Bad Man, Nityananda, Roy, Army Man, Manager, The Dude (npt related to "The Dude" Lebowski and isn't half as cool) and then Yours Faithfully. All arrive on time to the station except my buddies who made it minutes before the train left.

Once the train got moving started the process of excruciating negotiations with fellow passengers in order get an entire compartments to ourselves which took some time but was successful. Once all seated we all spoke of stuff I can't recollect. Might not have been anything important.

At about 8pm Black came over and said something in Tamil, I think. Bad Man produced a 1tr. bottle filled with black liquid out of his  bag, which I later found out was Old Monk and Pepsi. At first Black, Army Man and Me proceeded to the toilet to drink it while Bad stood guard outside. Inside we huddled up and drank as much as we liked. I don't drink often and hence got drunk pretty soon and returned to our compartment, took the window seat, put on my earphones and "Standing on the edge of forever At the start of whatever Shouting Love to the World" sings Robbie, back together with his old band mates.

One by one all returned with the first bottle done. We bought some shitty train food and where planning to down the second bottle when two Railway Bulls with a large flashlight came along and pulled Bad aside and started interrogating him coz they saw him standing outside the toilet and thought something was suspicious about it. In a moment of brilliant thinking Nitya threw the other bottle out coz they came back and started checking our bags one by one. Me and Nitya while they did it fearing they might smell the liquor on us. One of them viewed us suspiciously but encouraged us to continue eating. They just about got to my bag when I, being the Old Tea Head of Time that I am, realized i had some tea (concealed in a wrist watch box) along with smoking apparatus in it right on top.But thankfully due to the timely intervention from Sir, who made up a phony story, brandishing his ID card, they left.After that we quickly finished eating, made our berths and I fell asleep but was woken up by the mischievous Nitya who wanted me to keep watch as they smoked out off the window. then we bitched a little about the Priest and Mary Magdalene of our class, then spoke about future jobs for Army Man and I dozed off. The trip had just begun and we had already gotten in trouble with the law. Things could only get better......