It’s Easter weekend – our first in a strange country without family. No Easter eggs or hot cross buns to comfort the soul (although Good Friday is recognised in India), no church service in a familiar language, and no Friday and Monday off for Theo at work. There is one thing reminding us of Easter in Cape Town, though – showers of rain. It’s been raining since Friday. No, pouring – non-stop. The water in the roads has nowhere to go, so we see rivers running down the streets, deep dams in the middle of the road, and smaller cars stalling with water rising as high as their bonnets!

But the people of Hyderabad are smiling, because they’re also celebrating Holi, the festival of colours. Various colours of dry paint are used to change the people’s skin and hair tones to purple, yellow, red, blue … It was delightful to plough through the rivers of Hyderabad with our car, spotting cheerful people, drenched in colour, walking, driving or catching an autoriksha in the rain.

On Sunday we gave our driver the day off. But of course we’re not going to sit at home while Hyderabad bursts with colour and excitement, so Theo decides to pack his international drivers’ license and brave the wet roads and strange traffic rules, with me next to him, clutching the map book and only a little nervous. And it went well. The roads are generally not so busy on Sundays, and checking out the hooting and u-turns for almost a month now, Theo was quite comfortable with doing whatever was required of him – despite the heavy showers. Methinks we’ll do it again!

Our new car

Two and a half weeks ago we received our brand new Toyota Innova – big enough for all our visitors and the two dog children. As if our excitement wasn’t enough, we had to witness a Puja ritual done by a Hindu priest before taking it home – conveniently with a small temple right where the new cars are collected. First the car was decorated with a string of flowers, and yellow and red paint. Then the priest said a very long prayer at a pace that would put an auctioneer to shame, while throwing rice at the car. Theo then had to crack open a coconut so that the car could get some of the milk too. But, powerhouse that he is, he shattered the coconut on the pavement and little was left to throw on our, by then, very dirty car. The whole ritual was extremely interesting to watch and ended off with both Theo and I receiving a red dot between the eyes – well, I had to apply my own red dot, as in India men and women that are strangers generally don’t touch each other.

Our first visitors

Two weeks ago we had a visit from the CEO of our Sanlam Developing Markets cluster, Heinie Werth, and two of his executive managers, Robert Dommisse and Steven Mostert. Unfortunately Robert’s suitcase disappeared between Dubai and Hyderabad. This left him with only a few items in his hand luggage and (fortunately) a bottle of precious red wine from Stellenbosch that he brought especially for us. Robert still had a week and a half of overseas business travels ahead of him, so he and I hit the shops one afternoon to compile a new wardrobe for him. With the shops being just as new for me as for him, I was greatful that the afternoon turned out to be a rather successful adventure! That evening we had our executives over for dinner, and the next day it was quite tough to say good bye to them while we had to stay behind.

Toutists in our new country

Two weekends ago Theo had his first Saturday off, and we decided to explore a few tourist sites.

Charminar was our first stop. Literally meaning “four minars”, it was built in 1592 by the fifth Qutb Shah king to mark the center of the Old City of Hyderabad. There is an old mosque and a great view of the Old City. The building is surrounded by silversmiths, bangles and embroidery shops, marriage outfitters, perfume merchants, antique dealers and pearl and jewellery shops – all of which where unfortunately closed when we where there. To try and avoid the crowds (of visitors and beggars), we went early. The tour and views were brilliant – but I’ll definitely have to go back for some shopping!

Chowmahalla Palace was the next delight – a grand old palace with beautiful fountains and gardens that recently opened after five years of restoration (see the photos to get an idea of what it looks like).

On our way to our last mission, Golconda Fort, we stopped for some bottled water as the temperature was rising to above 36 degrees C. In the same small, overheated, fly-ridden shop Theo got the munchies and decided that the unpackaged, unsealed home-baked cookies looked like just the thing. His motto in India has been to live like the locals do … so he bought two cookies and ate one of them.

The 13th century Golconda Fort was an experience, with the remains of an ancient water system, and the accoustics of the fort being such that from the very top of the fort you can hear hands being clapped some 380 steps below, close to the entry gate. Yes, and we climbed all 380 very broad steps between 12 and 1 in the afternoon, with us and the tour guide nearly collapsing of heat. But still, it was a good experience, as you’ll see on some of the photos.

Scary experience- On our way home we made a quick stop. Coming out, making her way towards us was a tiny, skinny young woman with a baby in her arms. Just so you know that we don’t have hearts of stone – we’ve already helped some people in need that day, and out of principle we choose not to pay attention to those who harass us. When Theo tried to open the car door, this young lady pushed her arm in front of the door, trying to keep him outside, while moaning and shouting very loudly. Of course Theo couldn’t push her away, afraid that she might fall with her baby, and the next thing he knew she was grabbing and holding on to his legs, shouting even louder! I still don’t know how he managed to get into the car without her getting hurt, but this round he was on his own. I opted to brave the crazy traffic on the other side of the car to quickly jump in. We are still trying to get used to people banging against our car doors and windows for money – but we must say, after this very traumatic experience, we’d rather choose the door and window bangers.

Bad cookie- Now, if you wondered why on earth I would write about such small details such as home-baked cookies … That evening Theo was hit by a monster stomach attack – one that had him sweating and running for the rest of the weekend. And there’s only one thing he ate that I didn’t … Of course, the driver had the Sunday off, I didn’t have an international drivers’ license (and no, of course I’m not driving these roads without days of mental preparation!), and I needed fresh bread, coke and 7up to feed the man so that he could swallow part of the mini pharmacy our doctor made me bring along. That day I was even more greatful that we still had Emil and Hanna around, who brought much more than I had asked for to our house.

Note to hyper adventurers: Don’t eat unpackaged food that might have been exposed to heat and flying insects for who knows how long and baked by who knows who with who knows what. And if you have the need to live like a Hyderabadi, maybe remain kind to your foreign stomach (and subsequently your spouse) and rather do Holi!

Cricket celebs in Hyderabad

Walking in the Taj Deccan hotel one afternoon, we heard two men talking Afrikaans. Very excited to hear my home language, I didn’t think twice before starting a conversation with them, without really paying attention to their looks. And what do I know about the Kolkata cricket team’s colour scheme in any case … It’s only when I saw Theo approaching them with more respect than I that I realised these two could actually be more VIP than I gave them credit for. And indeed, they were Lance Klusener and Nanti Hayward.

Being really great people, they gave us tickets for two of their cricket games in Hyderabad. Unfortunately Kolkata didn’t have much luck on the field, but what an experience! And, standing out a little with our untanned skins, we also had our short moment of fame, being photographed by a newspaper reporter and appearing on TV, cheering for Nanti like maniacs.

Our next adventure will be to explore the beaches of Goa. We’ll let you know whether it’s worth a trip!

Namaste

Marga