Hyderabad Continued

We've been staying with Satya and Thriveni for a few days now. They have been excellent hosts. Thriveni and her cook have made wonderous dishes for every meal. Kathy has shown some restraint, but I have been eating and eating. (Sorry, Tim, I can't describe all the dishes.) I am definitely not losing weight on this trip. Thriveni is fasting for Dussehra a week-long festival of the triumph of good over evil, and only eats a light meal in the evening, so she doesn't even get to try out all her fabulous dishes.

Satya's sister, Ratna, was also in grad school, in education, at Iowa when I was there. In a note a number of years ago, Satya told me she had started a daycare center, named Chirec. In the last 20 years it has grown incredibly. It now includes all grades including high school, with three buildings and a fourth going up. They run probably 40 school busses everyday. Satya says it has one of the best reputations in Hyderabad. Unfortunately, school is on holiday right now for Dussehra, so we couldn't talk to students or teachers.

Ratna has a daughter, Neelu, who was 4.5 years old when I last saw her in Iowa City. What I remember about her is her big brown eyes. Both of Satya's kids, Ganani 6.5 years old and Laya 4.5 years old, have inherited the same eyes. They are a couple of sweet kids who get along royally with Kathy.

Our first day here we saw Golconda fort, which was used for several hundred hears about 500 years ago and the tombs of some Mughal emporers. Yesterday we climbed to an upper level of a mosque, Charminar. They wouldn't let us go all the way up the towers, however. Still some neat photos. We also visited Chowmahalla Palace, which is in the process of being restored. Today we went with Satya and his kids to the zoo. You will see our pictures of tigers, but none in the wild, yet.

We've had a very good visit here, but if we are going to see half of what we originally planned, we will have to be moving on. We are going to go down tomorrow early a.m. and try to book the evening train to Bangalore. Dinesh, another old friend from grad school lives there. He will be the last of the people that will be hosting us. We plan on spending two days in Bangalore then head south to Mysuru and some game parks.