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
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