Celebrating Diwali the Telugu way Round-the-world

Telugu Cultural Association of Greater Toronto's Greetings For the Deepavali

Diwali the Telugu way @ Malaysia By DERRICK VINESH
FOR the Telugu Hindu community, Deepavali or the Festival of Light is the most important celebration after Ugadi, which is the Telegu New Year, and Makar Sakranthri, also known as Ponggal in Tamil Nadu. More...

Diwali in Trafalgar Square In London Diwali is enthusiastically celebrated by people of all nationalities and religions.

When is diwali this year? - October 28: Trinidad News and Tobago News
Diwali is observed by 3 religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism. It has a strong significance for Indians, both religiously (Rama returned to Ayodhya, Shakti joined Shiva, etc.) and culturally (as the Indian New Year).
The Divali Nagar (Village of Lights) is the flagship project of the National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC). It is a nine day festival that is held annually during the nine days preceding Divali. More..

Vaaranam Aayiram, Not To Be Released This Diwali

Diwali Dhamaka on TV!

Diwali Celebrations Gerrard India Bazaar, Toronto

Albion Islington Square - Diwali Extravaganza -TABIA - Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas -From Sunday, 19 October 2008 - 8:00amTo Friday, 31 October 2008 - 8:00pm

Difference between Diwali in North India and Deepavali in South India

Deepavali, or Divali, (Markiscarali) @ Wiki

Diwali, also called Deepavali @ Telugupedia

The World in Pictures -- Colors of Hyderabad

Experience the world without having to leave your desk. View daily gallery of striking images from our the globe.
INDIA - A child plays among sarees out for drying at a cotton saree factory in the outskirts of the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. Back to: The World in Pictures - Photo gallery of images from around the world - MSN UK News - news & weather

Hyderabadi bakra is a sequel of Angrezy

Oops: Angrez (not Angrezy)!!!
Short introduction, 3 min:Click to activate
'Hyderabadi Bakra' in Mumbai (www.lehren.tv) Bollywood

Longer version: 38 min Click to activate

NB. To download the complete movie, Click here @ Groovy Corner: Hyderabadi Bakra - Hungama In Dubai (2008) - Original DVDRip

Chowmahalla set to regain grandeur

J.S. Ifthekhar, The Hindu,

Effort to recapture the ambience of the palace which was venue for official banquets of the Nizams

HYDERABAD: Breathtaking and awe-inspiring. That about forms a word picture of the famed Chowmahalla palace. But the renovated palace is even more enticing. With the restoration of Afzal Mahal, the grandest of the four palaces, nearing completion, Chowmahalla is all set to regain its past grandeur.

Conservation architects Rahul Mehrotra and Raja Martand Singh are doing a meticulous job to recapture the ambience of the palace which served as a venue for official banquets and receptions of the Nizams. By November-end Afzal Mahal is expected to be thrown open for visitors.

See also: Chowmahalla Palace to play host to celebrity banquets

Halloween party in Hyderabad

2 Nov 2007, 0000 hrs IST,TNN

It was Halloween night and folks at this nightclub got down to some real spooky affairs! Dead men walking, dark spirits and devils rising - the evening had an eerie aura of the other world. Everyone let their hair down and the sights, were well, hair raising, what else! Actor and model Deepika Padukone was flown down for this party and although she wasn't dressed for the occasion, she cast a spell anyway! Srikala Reddy seemed to be leading from the front, dressed in a stylised sorceress' dress. Actor Navdeep was here looking every bit a Halloween freak, while Nitin and Bharti sported scary masks through the evening. Others seen enjoying themselves were Dhisha Girglani, Priya, Meer Aga, Meera and more. OVERHEARD: "It's alright if the skeletons from the closet come out today!"

See also:

All about Halloween
31 Oct 2001, 0138 hrs IST, Times of India

Hard times and tall tales

All is definitely not well with the world. Hyderabad's most prominent landmark, the four-minared architectural marvel that has defined it for more than 4 centuries, is not in great shape. While hi-tech cities in low-tech surroundings bloom, plush gated communities mushroom, skyscrapers sprout and all the cars, autos, bikes and buses of Bharat that is mahaan, converge at Punjagutta or Paradise, depending on where you are and regardless of where you wanted to go in the first place, the collective, incremental effect of idlers, lovers, tourists and vandals, not to speak of the "vagaries of nature" to use a popular cliche, is taking its toll. Of course, there is the obvious, but the unmentionable--sheer neglect by government agencies, paid to keep it alive and going. Tell them this and they'll blind you with statistics--so don't even think of getting into that!

On another note, who's pulling a fast one here--a Hyderabadi or a Bangalorean? Hard to tell, eh?

PS. info courtesy: Thadakamalla Sujatha Rao (New Zealand); and Yahoo! 360° - Pavan's Blog, "Hyderabad IT World ~ July 01, 2006"
"…….in near future
The mind itself is of the form of all"

See also:

With reference to the above Tall Tale Bangalore or Hyderabad - Which is real and which is imagined?

Vision of Hyderabad in The Technology Chronicles

Hyderabad Skyscrapers

Hyderabad's Charminar 'crying' for preservation

Vision of Hyderabad in The Technology Chronicles

A forwarded email (by Brothers Abdul Hai Patel and Malik Khan) brought to me the following text and visuals (Author unkown)!!!

Subject: Beautiful Hyderabad Pictures
Message:
Hello Everyone,
Just wanted to share these beautiful pictures of Hyderabad with all of you.
Enjoy.

[NB. The following text that came with the pictures, is originally posted by VALLABHA in response to Alan Saracevic's article: Visions of India: Next stop Hyderabad]
Tell me how many people in INDIA know that Hyderabad has:

1) The IMAX Theatre with Worlds Largest screen and the only true 3D screen in INDIA

2) Asia 's biggest and one of the Worlds' biggest and best Convention centres 'HICC'

3) World's biggest Film Studio complex ' Ramoji Film City '

4) Country's best Animation and art work studios

5) Country's best and biggest Exhibition centre so far 'HITEX'

6) Country's biggest single real estate venture at the cost of US $2.2Billion by ICICI Ventures and Tishman of New York !

7) Hyderabad is leading in Hospital Tourism, now trying to lead also in Echo Tourism

8) Hyderabad is the best place to start any new retail business or Mall: This was from a study on how Malls are fuelling sales in India and the max amount of Sales happened in the Malls in Hyderabad despite the huge number of very big malls in Delhi and Mumbai.. Many biggest of the kind malls are being constructed here. You can also see, Reliance group, Tata's, Heritage group and many more venturing their first retail units starting from Hyderabad !

9) Hyderabad is the only place where complete restructuring is happening by even demolishing lot of buildings within the city! Delhi is the other only City, which followed this model.

10) In fact Infosys has planned its world's Largest Campus near to Shamshabad Airport in an area of 500acres of land! However its pending.. it may take of soon. Else some other campus would come up there.

11) Fab City would be the Ultimate answer for the Electronic and chip making industry from India !

12) How many know about ISB

13) IIT is being setup now in Hyderabad .

14) Birla has already setup Bits in Hyderabad

15) Country's largest number of Colleges for Engineering Medicines and largest number of Universities are in AP!

16) Just the colleges in and around Hyderabad produce much more Engineering graduates than any other city in INDIA !

17) Country's most expensive Residential Only venture has started in Hyderabad , with 250 villas where each Villa will be in 1 Acre of land and at the cost of Rs.14crores each! Why only in Hyderabad ? Because people are ready to buy and live there :-)

18) The most connected city in INDIA with highest Teledensity
.....and lot more like this!

Can you expect Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, The 2 Google Champions, CSC, GE and all these people pour huge investments and expand their campuses just based on Hype?
Hyderabad is now a tri-city: CYBERABAD-HYDERABAD-SECUNDERABAD!

You must be knowing the Fact: US has chosen Hyderabad over Bangalore for setting up its New Consulate and it is already in process! This is because there are more VISA applicants from AP hitting Chennai Consulate! For that matter, always the biggest number of Travellers to US is from AP

A visual treat ..… [info courtesy: The Great Hyderabad (Deccan - Telangana) - Andhraguyz Community] Birla temple: Budha statue at Hussain Sagar: Charminar: Falaknuma palace: Chowmahalla palace: Khilwat: Palace Purani haveli: Mummy in Archeological Museum: Ashur khana: Durgam Cheruvu: Golconda: Fort High Court: Himayat Sagar: NTR Gardens: Osmania Hospital: OsmaniaUniversity: Ramoji Film city: Salarjung Museum: Museum Shilpa Ramam: Toyland: And Finally the One and Only Hyderabadi biryani: See also: Hyderabad (Deccan - Telangana): A visual treat ..… Visions of India: Next stop Hyderabad Deccani lithographs bring back Hyd of yore

Cricket fever in Hyderabad

Cricket fever grips Hyderabad, Indo-Asian News Service, Hyderabad, October 04, 2007

The third ODI between Australia and the home team is scheduled to be played at the Uppal stadium here, on Friday, October 5. Tickets have already been sold out as all the newspapers have reported this morning. In fact, the police have had to use their 'lathis' is some places, to 'persuade' cricket fans to leave.

One only hopes that the match will be an enjoyable day out for all the enthusiasts, minus the taste of 'lathis' and other signs of general disorder associated with crowds.
One wishes though, that the HCA--if wishes were horses--had sold more tickets and cut down on their 'complimentaries'. Well, well, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

See also:
Hyderabadi Cricket news updates @ hyderabadi bloggers and @ Google news:

Will Hyderabad ever get past square one?

That's the big question. officialdom, being officaldom will tell you that Hyderabad is the most happening city (without defining 'happening'), that it's ready to take on Singapore and Shanghai--after a peg ot two, an official might even tell you that it's already giving Shanghai a run for its money! A businessman told us an anecdote about a meeting with some officials in which some NRIs, interested in investing in a new project here, had also participated. One NRI asked this official how the traffic mess would ever get resolved, because no plan seems to be in place. He glibly replied that the ring road would soon take care of all the traffic problems and for effect, added that 'self-sufficient' satellite townships were going to come up all around soon. Now isn't that a perfectly 'Alice in Wonderland' situation!

This is much like a play that was staged at a city hotel recently where Shah Jahan calls for tenders to build the Taj, assigns the work to his Chief Engineer, who passes it on contractors with hefty cuts of the pie distributed all over the place. The Taj doesn't get built and Shah Jahan dies after an endless wait. We, Hyderabadis, are a bunch of Shah Jahans who will never see our Taj Mahals (in our case, good roads, accountable governance and a responsive administration), cynical as it may sound. As the great Meer Taqui 'Meer' said nearly 200 years ago:
jab se jahaN hai tab se Kharaabi yahi hai 'meer'
tum dekh kar zamaane ko Hairaan kya rahe
(This world has always been a rotten place ai 'meer'
why are you astonished to see it so?)

see also:

Travails for the Taj
Marathi play ‘Tender taj mahalache’ was a depiction of corruption in society

Rangadhara theatre stream presented their 94th play in Hyderabad , with a Marathi play titled Tender Taj mahalache, an adaptation of the original Hindi play Tajmahal Ka Tender, written by Ajay Shukla. The show wa s held recently at the Maharashtra mandal auditorium, Ramkote, Hyderabad.

The play in Marathi was translated by Bhaskar Kulkarni, who also co directed the play along with Prof. Bhaskar Shewalker.

'Prince' from Hyderabad claims Taj

GHMC--An Alice in Hyderabad's Wonderland

Hyderabad is suddenly being seen as the city of disasters by some of our prophets of doom. Yes, there have been tragic bomb blasts at Mecca Masjid on May 18 and at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat, three months later. Both the Mecca Masjid blast and the Lumbini Park blast could possibly have been averted with some vigilance, screening and precautionary measures. But, as always, we seem to be growing wise after the event. Public places now are more sensitive to security, which is a good thing.

The other tragedy that shook us up was the collapse of a section of the flyover near Panjagutta for which there are simply no excuses. The contractor, the consultant, GHMC and all the other government agencies are equally responsible for the death of Ankit Aurora, young techie whose life has been rudely cut short, and that of Ramu, a supporter of a politician, from Armoor. Disaster management is an expression our officials have not heard of. There is no nodal disaster management agency it appears, equipped with gas cutters and other emergency relief equipment. Of course, the officials were there to give sound 'bites' to tv cameras, sounding more like politicians than men on the job responsible for both the disaster and its relief operations. How else can one explain their irresponsibility in blaming 'the unprecended rain' for the flyover collapse? It rained for an hour dammit--I live about a mile away from the blessed flyover: I should know. Of course, a 'wizened' GHMC Commissioner clarified the next day that by 'unprecedented' rain was meant 'the quantum of rain in an hour, a single hour, that is.' Oh really! Give us a break Mr. Sarma! Like millions of other Hyderabadiz I was born in this city and have lived here all my life and have seen enough of 'unprecedented rain'. The GHMC and everybody else told the citizens of Hyderabad that this flyover and others being built along with this elsewhere in the city, were 'quake-proof' and 'terror-proof'. They're telling us now that they aren't even 'shower-proof'! GHMC is the new Alice in Hyderabad's Wonderland. Welcome to 'Greater' Hyderabad!

Hyderabad's diaspora--vibrant overseas communities

Hyderabadiz started moving out ages ago. The migration to distant lands gathered momentum in the 80s, picked up further in the 90s and is at an all-time high now, thanks to the IT boom. Many of the early settlers be they in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia or elsewhere in the world have their own little Indian communities and within that a community of Hyderabadiz that they move in.

London, Chicago and Toronto among dozens of other cities across the globe are clear examples of little Hyderabads that get built abroad. The second and third generation immigrants can barely relate to their roots, in the way their parents and grandparents want them to. But then, it's unfair to transplant them on alien shores and expect them to behave as though they live in Dabeerpura or Dilsukhnagar. It's only right that they are romans in Rome.

See also:

HYDERABADIS, by SHEHLA BURNEY [in Multicultural Canada]

An ode to Hyderabad, By SANGEETHA DEVI K [in a review of the film Dead Body, by Kaz Rehman, the Canadian film maker]--Kaz is a son of a Hyderabadi, late Mohammed F. Rahman, settled in Canada.

Far and away... Locating Home: India's Hyderabadis Abroad, by Karen Isaksen Leonard

Emerging lifestyles

The one thing that's changing rapidly in Hyderabad, is the lifestyle of the average middleclass citizen. In tune with the changing skyline and towers that mark this change. The malls are a huge attraction and there are quite a few of them. The pubs are a big draw as are a host of new restaurants, and some resorts. The one refrain that's heard all the time is about the 'wretched traffic'. Not much can be done say some Hyderabadiz. There's nothing that can't be regulated say others. The rains are not making it any easier for us here. What are the silver linings then? We need some Hyderabadiz to respond to this query. Is it that it still has the most laidback lifestyle in the country? Or that it gives you the sort of cuisine that few regions offer? We need some Hyderabadiz to give us their take on this.......

'smart' city....what about citizens?

Hyderabad is all geared up to introduce multi-application smart cards soon.
These cards, which will double as driving licence and vehicle registration documents will also bring up--thanks to hand-held readers, the history of previous traffic offences, tax and insurance data and and related information on the driver.
The city's turning 'smart' if this bit of news is to be believed, but what about the worthy citizenry? Thereby hangs a litany of woes, which I'll save for another day. The only thing I'll whine about today is what our political parties are doing to Hyderabad--in terms of worsening things. They paralyze traffic for the flimsiest of reasons, creating hopeless snarls. The Left parties say they're doing it to get land for the landless. Others have other reasons. What do our 'netas' think of pressing in their cadre as traffic volunteers to show their protest, instead of getting them caned and fired upon by the police and paralyzing traffic? Idea worth publicizing? What say folks?

see also:

Hyderabad opts for smart system

Smart cards for motorists by October, The Times of India

Biometric tracking gives a tamper proof identity to villagers
Biometric tracking gives a tamper proof identity to villagers, Jaya Menon - Chennai

Pay but don’t touch – Security, Satisfaction, and Expectation
Arby’s rolls out ‘contactless’ payment cards

Ganesh Chaturthi in Hyderabad

Ganesh Visarjana in Hyderabad

Hyderabad for over nearly three decades now, has emerged as a major centre for Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. There's a large community of artisans in Dhoolpet and adjoining areas that depends for its livelihood, on making idols of Lord Ganesh for the festival and start making them months ahead.

This year, they seem to be unsure whether to use synthetic colours in making the idols, as they have doing traditionally or comply with the State Government's directives and use herbal colours, intead. The demand, as always is huge--at least 15,000 Ganesha idols have to be made for the festival in September, if not more. The State Government's directive on using herbal colours is meant to prevent water bodies from getting polluted. Artisans say herbal colours are not easy to get and what is available is of inferior quality. Artisans apparently have no problem using herbal colours, but do face a problem when it comes to procuring them. The truth, as all of us do know, is that water bodies do get polluted to indescribable extent on account of the immersion of thousands of idols. All of us need to do our little bit to make the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi more eco-friendly and 'organic'. The least the government can do is make organic, non-toxic colours available to the artisans through organizations like the National Green Corps.

See also:

Hyderabad artisans mull over use of herbal colours on Ganesha idols

Wah Hyderabad!

Taking the same thought forward, from last time--is Hyderabad ready for the big league of metropolises or is the pretence getting to it? On the one hand, there are islands of relative prosperity like Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, parts of Madhapur, Begumpet and other areas. We have 'service apartments' in and around Hi-tech City to cater to the inflow of MNC personnel, the hospitality industry says things are looking up like never before, all hotels are notching up high occupancy rates and real estate prices are going through the roof. On the other, a half-hour thundershower is enough to throw the city out of gear, kill a few people and disrupt thousands of lives for a few hours. And, in terms of infrastructure, the city's bursting at the seams--the roads can't take the traffic, new roads and fly-overs are a long way off from nearing completion and as for our City authorities, the MCH ducks for cover, when it is needed the most.

No one spares a thought for large swathes of the city's population living in sprawling slums from Uppal to Rajendranagar and Kukatpally to areas beyond Vanasthalipuram, sans government facilities in terms of civic amenities, not to speak of two of the most critical areas--health and school education. Don't mention government facilities like the Osmania Hospital, Gandhi or Niloufer Hospital, which were known to be the best in town at one time (when we were growing up in the sixties and seventies). Many schools run by the government do not have roofs, boards, desks and benches, leave alone enough teachers.
And yet, we claim Hyderabad is the most happening place. We need to shake ourselves out of this delusional state and get real.

Monsoon showers in Hyd......

"Monsoon arrives in Hyderabad in June and lasts four months" Institutional Greening through water harvesting, MANAGE - The National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad
The rains are here and the infrastructure of the city, as always, is unprepared and under severe stress. The streets are beginning to overflow. Potholes make life interesting for motorists and bikers and there's more to come. Traffic, already at a snail's pace on most of the city's busy roads has waterlogged roads to contend with. Let's only hope that the Public Health folks are more prepared, because monsoon showers lead to largescale outbreaks of disease. And that's the last thing Hyderabad can deal with. That's the plain and simple truth folks. China can build a road right up to the base camp of Mount Everest in four months, but we take ten years to build half a fly-over!
Hyderabad can be the new Shanghai:
And they say Hyderabad is as happening as Shanghai. 'They', in case this needs any explanation, happen to be politicians and bureaucrats--who between them have reduced Hyderabad to its current state.

Far and away......

Locating Home: India's Hyderabadis Abroad, by Karen Isaksen Leonard

Review from Saty's desktop:
Karen Isaksen Leonard's 'Locating Home' is a brilliant, comparative study of the Hyderabadi diaspora across the world-- Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Canada, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

Quite evidently, Karen has spent a lot of time over painstaking research, fieldwork and conducting interviews. 'Locating Home' looks at Hyderabadi culture and institutions, transplanted in alien shores. She demonstrates how memories of old Hyderabad, in terms of cultural values and institutions still find a place in the lives of these expats, or get transmuted and even discarded, depending on several factors, which include generation, gender, social strata, and other associations with what used to be the state of Hyderabad. Interestingly, Karen's previous publications include a book on the Kayasth community. 'Locating Home' is a must read for Hyderabadis--be they a part of the diaspora or 'locals'.

Review @ Amazon:
“This is research on a grand scale. Karen Leonard questions prevailing notions of diaspora, transnationalism, and globalization not by adding yet another layer to the cake of theory on these topics, but by providing a rich, incredibly diverse engagement with Hyderabadis around the world. As a multisite ethnographer, Leonard practices what most anthropologists are content merely to preach.”—Andrew Shryock, University of Michigan

The faster we run, the more we stay in the same spot

Well, well....it does seem true--a blogroll of Hyderabadiz is something of a contradiction in terms--we're too laidback as a community to blog as much as we might want to. And if we choose to, our attempts are no different than our desperate efforts to negotiate Hyderabadi traffic--in tune with the chaos that adds up to life in this undefinably insane, 'paradise on earth'.

WYSIWYG: Hyderabadiz Flickr Badge is picked by 3 Bloggers
Thank you guys for going an extra mile

It's not always that blogs get noticed....we've been a shade lucky in that some of our 'virtual' friends have posted our flickr badge on their sites. We doff our hats in grateful acknowledgment to them.The truth is that life (virtual and real) at least elsewhere in the world, is whizzing by at breakneckspeed and things seem to be changing faster than the click of a mouse.

see also: 5 Reasons to Update Your Blog

The other face of Hyderabad....

Strong winds wreak havoc; two killed The Hindu, Apr 15, 2007

Shopping, food are good in Hyderabad :
Vishaka Singh, IndiaGlitz.com, April 22, 2007

All it takes is a cloudburst or a determined shower, so to say, to throw city life completely out of gear. If the wind-god decides to puff and blow, Hyderabad has had it. Hoardings go flying, trees get uprooted, power lines snap, and life, in short, gets totally dislocated. If two tall trees sway this way and that, our electricity folks feel they've had enough.We who belong to this third world city that nurses delusions of leapfrogging into an elite club of metropolises know how to sift the grain of reality from the chaff of hype and illusion...
It's a bit difficult to swallow the bitter pill that a city that lays claims to competing with Shanghai or Singapore, has infrastructure so flimsy and frayed at the seams, that a downpour can paralyze it and a deluge all but destroy it. But that's the plain ole truth--Hyderabad is an overgrown village and if you need further evidence--after all the polluted lakes, overcrowded localities, ill-equipped hospitals, pathetic schools, choked drains, land grabbing cases and insane traffic--you need help!
On this rather sober note we look at our beloved city this week--preferring NOT to look at its hoariness, heritage, history, aristocracy, culture and legacy, for the moment. Remember Faiz--"Aur bhi dukh haiN zamaane meiN mohabbat ke siwa..."

Hyderabad's culture scene

Speaking of the city's culture scene, the Times of India, Hyderabad's Festival drew big stars and impressive crowds. Vani Ganapathi's Bharatanatyam performance, Ghulam Ali's Ghazal evening and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan's Sarod recital, were events I couldn't attend, but Hyderabad made it to. I did manage to go to the plays, 'Dance Like a Man' (Mahesh Dattani's play, directed by Lillette Dubey) and 'The Vagina Monologues', which was directed by Mahbanoo Modi Kotwal and featured her and Dolly Thakore, Sonali and Jayati Bhatia. The culture scene's warming up as is the city, with rising temperatures.

PS. Image courtesy: Musical evening in the lap of royalty @ Der Sturm in meinem Kopf and Sarod Recital By Ustad Amjad Ali Khan & Sons @ fullhyderabad.com

see also: The Times Hyderabad Festival Concert Review by Emma @ Desicritics.org