I've just arrived in Bangalore after a weekend in my old haunt of Hyderabad, where I spent 6 life-changing months in 2007 (read the blog here). I am happy to report that India remains the crazy, invigorating, predictably unpredictable wild east that I found so endearing before, and if anything, it is more so.
Ever since I was here at the impressionable age of 25, India has held a special place in my heart. The people I met were warm, welcoming and interested in discussing cultural differences which were endless, entertaining and a good exercise in self-reflection. Nothing causes self-reflection more than being asked to clarify a statement that is so obvious in your head that you didn't realize anyone wouldn't know what you are talking about. It reminds you not to take anything for granted.
I don't know if I would have reached this level of reflection and appreciation had I come here as a tourist. India is wild and difficult for foreigners who aren't in the right mindset. It can be dangerous to your health and safety and a fatiguing assault on the senses, yet if you are prepared and open, it can be worth the hardship. I was here for "business" (in quotes because in my head I have an image of "business travel" as a middle-aged white guy with a gut and a blue-tooth) for a long time as a google team trainer, so I got to experience the best of both worlds.
I experienced the comforts of home by living in a house with other foreign googlers and going to an air conditioned office each day, but worked with hundreds of Indians which allowed me to feel like a local in Hyderabad and to travel all over India on weekends either with ex-pats or with locals (like this exciting weekend in Chennai staying at the family home of my friend Ramya and riding side-sattle in a saree on her motorbike to the hindu temple and brahmin fortune-teller). It wasn't the hippie backpacker experience that many 25-year-olds seek in India, but I would argue that I actually got a more authentic, diverse and personal experience than any hippie backpacker could hope for (and I escaped with no bedbug bites).
Now I am back, five years later, revisiting my friends and my favorite city followed by some exploration and adventure to the beautiful mountains of Kerala and the elephant preserves. Hyderabad is not the city that tourists typically go to, but it is my second home, and despite the development of an entire city of tall buildings since the last time I was there (including their first western mall), it is still the city I knew. People are exceptionally nice, nicer than almost any other place I've been in India, and the culture is exceptionally diverse with the historic city being a former islamic sultanate (nizam-ate to be precise) and the other parts of the city being the capital of the Telegu-speaking, mostly-Hindu state of Andhra Pradesh.
In a tribute to modern India and my jet-lag, I focused my time in Hyderabad purely on friends and shopping. I met up with Rupa, one of my very best friends in the whole world (and that is a big world!) who I met in India and have since seen on two other continents and who is indirectly responsible for my meeting of my future husband :). Rupa accompanied me on my saree-buying outing for my wonderful bridesmaids who have graciously accepted my request to add Indian fashion accents to my western wedding in San Francisco by wearing sarees. To top off my Indian wedding mini-experience I got bridal henna/mehendi and finally went to Rupa's house and hung out with her family - three generations of them.
This was the perfect dip back into India, reminding me of many of the things that I liked so much about Hyderabad, most of all, feeling like I still can be a local in a place on the absolute opposite side of the world, even if that local needs to ride in an air-conditioned car ;).
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