Ripples on the brain

“Believe me, I’ll miss Hyderabad more than I miss Chennai when I go to Erode”. This was how I summed up my reactions to our host when our short trip to Hyderabad ended. This was way back in 1998. It was my father’s last LTC and we had come to Hyderabad. Wow, I liked this place. The drive along the tank bund road, the Salarjung museum (”too little time to visit the museum”, I’d complained then), Birla Mandir, the serenity of Sec’bad, Charminar - all of these mesmerized me.
This week, I wanted to sort of relive that magic. Today I visited some of those places again. The magic simply wasn’t there. I loathed the crowded tank bund road. The water in Hussain Sagar clearly looked dirty. I was telling the person who accompanied me all through how great the place would be. When we actually rode through the road, I fell silent. He glanced at me and I didn’t have a word. I don’t know. It’s either that I had thought that the place was more beautiful than it actually was or that it has worsened over the years. I mean, it is easier to say that it has degraded but there is a strong possibility that the former happened because my family didn’t feel Hyderabad was so good at that time. But there is also another possibility.
But to be fair, there’s a lot of planned development taking place in Hyd’bad as far as I can see. Most of the roads laid out here are three lane each way with greenery forming the median mostly. The company HUDA is developing the city well and I’m told except the old city (which I’ven’t visited recently) all other places have been developed well.