First Flight of my Life

I know, it sounds weird, but yea, In my 3+ work experience, I did not get a chance to board plane.
When I decided on MS in USA, apart from many other important new experiences which I should face, one obviously was the Flight journey. Having one or two visits to Airport (as a visitor), I hardly knew anything about the airport etiquettes(which I was worried about).
THE day has finally come ,and it was RajivGandhi International Airport, Hyd. I have already heard a lot about what to do (from my bro) , what not to do, things to remember, Passport - always check, do not forget the baggage blah blah blah. At the airport, as we usually see in a typical telugu movie, A gang of around 20 people arrived for my sendoff. Some were happy that am finally on my way trying out my dreams, some were sad that am leaving them, and wont return in near future( specially mom) , But in my mind, I was just thinking how my next 24hrs would be.

It was August 15 '13, and I was going to board British Airways(Till Heathrow, London). yea, It sounds weird for many Indians with the Aug15 ( The Independence day) and British Airways combination, It hardly matters anyway. As soon as I entered the airport, I stood enthralled, astonished by seeing the flags  all over the airport, flag colored papers decorated and almost every Indian of airport staff with a flag on his/her shirt. I felt proud for myself :D, and I told to myself "a good start !" and moved on.

I found three British Airways personnel sitting and guy directed all the BA passengers to check-in their bags. He welcomed me with very warm wish, you guess it right -" Good morning Mam, Happy Independence day!", Happiness all along, I checked-in my bag , then to Immigration officer, I shocked him with a greet (Happy Independence Day!) , and moved to security check and finished it in 5min. done! that's it. Am ready to fly :-D

Two more hours to fly, And am all done with formalities, so I decided to explore the airport. There are many things which we can shop about, Clothes, books, accessories etc. There are many options for food as well. I had my breakfast ( Idli Wada ! - My fav) and Now its time aboard.

My first peep into Flight , A long compartment of seats like a chair-car in shathabdi express :D with 2-4-2 seats between two pathways. Its time for me to sit, Hurray!, I got a Window seat. I think now am loving it :D

In the aircraft,  the food(special Indian meals which was too good), the ambiance, the comfort, the movies (English, Hindi) , everything was awesome. Takeoff , Landing was little scary but apart from that everything seemed like a simple ride. whenever there were turbulence, it was like a roller coaster ride.

Heathrow Airport ,London , It was so big - it took us a lot of time in walking to the desired terminal. This airport I would say is vast , beautiful  and of course one of the world's busiest airport. So many option to shop and Eat!.

And now, its American Airways (from Heathrow  -> Dallas) , Another time in a queue and couple of questions and a boarding pass. Now I felt like, an experienced flight boarder :P :P.  I had 20min before my connecting flight, the next task , yes , to check the Airport Wifi , More than to mention the family that I reached London , Check-in on FB,  letting people know I am in a foreign Land for the first time :D.

American Airways, Yes- a 11hr fight,  Not many Indian faces, American food, Welcome to America! I told to my self. Again a window seat !! I was delighted. Peeping out of the window now and then, was my Time pass in the flight. The oceans, the mountains etc from the window, were like Arial view, is really a very good experience.

I reached my destination ( dallas- fortworth airport DFW), and Immigration check again. A separate line for Internationals and Americans.  and yes our queue was pretty big, it took an hour at the Immigration check and baggage collection and then a stamp on passport, And we are done!!
I am now in America, officially for my MS :D

Hyderabad Again..!

A 3'day (rather, i would say - 2'night) trip to Hyderabad.
Every time i visit Hyderabad, it was always a brand new experience for me and i mean it. It was a 3 day trip in March (Summer already gearing up) and Our mission was to have a close look at the night life, so our Day1 started @4pm. We (Gang of 6) started-off to "Park" which has a pub named "Kismet" located exactly opposite to Necklace road (MMTS station). We decided to have a small meal, so stopped at KFC which was located close to "Park". People who don't believe in "KFC run by deaf and dumb", Can visit this branch of KFC.It was my first visit to KFC and i felt privileged.

As soon as i entered Kismet, i already started getting the feel of a pub(usually shown in Movies with disco lights) at the entrance and on the dance floor,The barman playing with the bottles, bouncers roaming around. Not to forget it's Hyderabad, and 9 30 pm is too early for night life. To my surprise in a matter of 1 hr i saw  kismet over-crowed. Music was extra-ordinary and the crowd was awesome, folks, who doesn't had intentions to dance also, will start jumping, and its not an exaggeration. For many, specially elders,who think its wrong thing to do- going to a pub - where people booze etc etc, i would say, a decent pub like Kismet with a trust worthy friends is heaven ( If you booze or not).I bet, The Music n people will elicit your energy levels(Great place to hang out for even non-boozers with a prerequisite that they shouldn't mind people drinking! ).

Dance Floor @ Kismet

The roads of Hyderabad, what ever time it is, not deserted ,will find Police patrolling, vehicles on roads and you are not alone at all. You can still find food- Tiffins (Idly, dosa etc) or authentic biryani, what ever it is.

Day 2: As we all were sporting freaks, we started off to In-orbit mall for bowling. It was a wrong timing. Not to forget, A Sunday evening, to a mall, that too where you find software professionals as neighbors, is really a wrong thing. The crowd was horrible with kids all over the playing arena. To have a break from all this, we decided to go to the food court and try something new, my eyes stuck when i saw Cream-stone Ice-cream counter (Famous one in Hyderabad), i tried 3 different flavors and all of them were equally delicious and you don't feel it as a real ice-cream  as  he minces it so finely. I would strongly recommend it to all the ice-cream lovers, and of-course i loved it.

We had to choose Rush sports bar, where were expecting less crowd for bowling. Bowling is the best game when you think, you can involve all your friends equally in the game  and I have to mention, I am disastrous when it comes to bowling, being am optimist, i would rather say, i am still in learning phase.
And now, It's time for go-karting! so we started-off to shamshabad airport for the same. The environs of go-karting there has no bounds when it comes to description, at least for a person like me, who doesn't like much crowd and noise. On a Sunday night or rather i would say Monday morning, Go-karting starts at 12 am. The track was really broader and we jumped in for a 9 lap race as soon as it was open. If you are on a race with a 6 people who are extra-ordinary drivers, i can guarantee, the money paid-off. Go-karting is something which should be done as a race, not as an individual . friends trying to over-take, trying to hit you and not let you come over them, the crazy U- turns( Last U-turn in this place was awesome), If you are stopped (because of some technical problems - like Engine down, fuel empty), and others come hit you, making your life more miserable. At that time, you think, this is Life :-).

It was the Day 3, and One of my friend wanted to check out the actual shopping in Hyderabad  but because of the Terrorist attack and alert, we dropped the idea of going to Charminar, and ended up to Koti. For banglorians koti looks like Jayanagar 4th block. though it was Monday, it was very crowded and there were  announcements everywhere to beware of strangers and Unclaimed bags etc (because of the attacks which hit hyd a week ago), and then i remembered my dad's words of not to roam in crowded places, so got out of that place in less than an hour ( I think its a record for 2 gals, getting out of a shopping area in less than an hour, and we did it).
Its time for Imax - the big screen, Must visit. The hall was really big ,which i have ever seen, at least when it comes to watching a movie and of-course the big screen too. we watched a movie named "jack the gaint slayer" In 3D. More than the movie, we were excited about the Screen, which makes it clear that I was First timer to visit Imax too.

After the movie, we were left out with almost 2 n half hrs for our Bus and we decided to go to Eat street and it was real treat to eyes because of the view from there, you can see the total of necklace road with lights along with the still water (the tank bund).
The Astrologers: You find plenty of astrologers with  parrots on the necklace road. These people are the cheapest among fortune tellers. I wonder how these people tell the fortune based on one card picked up from a pack of less than 20 cards. I think they just observe the other's instincts, have some knowledge of face reading, which will help them in making people believe them, no offenses anyway. If you really want some fun, you have to definitely go for it. They will really boost some of your qualities and you will enjoy the way they narrate it.

When we booked our return tickets , we were happy that we booked "paradise" as our boarding point,more than the Place of reach, It was dinner which made us think it as a better stop to the trip.
Paradise biryani is one of the most famous biryani hub.Paradise is the place named after this famous Restaurant which is located in secenderabad. We had total of three visits to Paradise in three days and two times to this main branch of Paradise. We had Chilli Fish -starter, Paradise special biryani(both chicken and lamb), Hyderabadi biryani, Egg biryani, dessert "double ka meeta", last but not the least "Pan" which you get downstairs in the same building and everything tasted so very delicious, A groovy end to the out-standing trip.