A new city again!!!

It was the last week of june, summer was at its peak in my native place. I took a train that takes me to hyderabad, yeah I am going to hyderabad where I was supposed do my internship. I was offered internship at Health management and research institute(HMRI), in their web development team. I dont know much about web development or what it is except for some vague idea we get from the name.

Next morning I woke up in Hyderabad station, also known as nampally station. I came out and was flocked by a group of auto-walas trying to impress me. They wanted their boni(first business in the morning) to be good and so they started quoting only round figures some of which actually shocked me. I am not used to these kind of places in my native place, where you give 30 rs to an auto wala and he can drop you at the other end of the city. One autowala looking decent than others approached me as I cleared my way through the greedy autowalas and said " kidhar jaana hai sir". I said "KPHB". He said "250 sir". I could see the meter in the auto and asked why he doesnt take me on auto fare. He said "Early in the morning sir, we take 1 1/2 times. Jaana hai?". Slowly calculating the approximate distance it could be from nampally to kphb and at the same time being cautious that they might spot me to be an outsider, I said " 50 rs istha". He took a deep breathe " mazaak kar rahe ho? idhar se kphb pachaas rupaye? ....". I couldn't make out what he was murmering in the end. I couldn't understand the hyderabadi hindi he was speaking which is a mixed breed between hindi, urudu and telugu.

Finally one autowala took me to my destination for the meter price which was around 150. I paid him and he left. For the first few days I did nothing but take rest, eat and sleep.

My office was in RTC crossroads which was around 14 Km from the place I stay. On the first day when I came out on the road, I didnt know what bus to take, where the buses would stop, where I am supposed to get down. For the first few days I had to take autos which were costly compared to my native place. HMRI a so called private company with all the features of a govt office, except that the building is all centrally air conditioned and there is a strict security.

Office was really good, but for me and my friend vikas who was another intern along with me, office sucked. We were waiting near the receptionist lobby, where a couple of chairs were put for the visitors. We had to wait there, and occasionally would get the chance to sit. Finally we were allotted a place, we were put in a team where they were doing some assembly or modifications(whatever you might call) to some electronic equipment. We being from a software background couldnt make head or tail of it. So daily we would give attendance and go to the first floor of the building where a room has been allocated to the PS1 students from our campus. They were given a good room with AC and internet. And I could see any bitsian boy/girl given these facilities can make the most of them. They started playing AOE on lan from morning to evening. So even I joined them in their pursuit of proper usage of net. This happiness didnt last long, before even we could contribute in their pursuit whole heartedly, they had to leave. Somehow managed to crawl through the time and as the days passed slowly, they told us that we are going to another branch not very far from the main branch but a place where only software team would be there and that we were to be put in a web development team.

So by now I was able to findout how to reach my office with min cost, "The MMTS". First day when I took the mmts from hitech city station to lakdi ka pool, I was crushed and I feared a bone or two might have been broken. So I strongly decided to go by first class even though the ticket is a bit expensive, how expensive? "Expensive by 25 times". Normal ticket was 2Rs and first class ticket costed 50Rs. I was travelling now in first class from hitech city to lakdi ka pool, and from there took an auto that costed me 20 bucks. Still this is costly. After first couple of days, the girl in the counter said, "sir you can take a first class pass if you are travelling between the same points daily". Thus I started travelling wisely at a far cheaper price....To be contd....