For 2nd consecutive year, Hyderabad ranked as best Indian city to live in

It is good news for people of Hyderabad - for the second consecutive year, it has been crowned as the best Indian city to live in by the Mercer's Quality of Living rankings 2016. Pune was a close second to Hyderabad at 144 while the upscale metros of Mumbai and New Delhi stood far below at 152 and 161 positions respectively. Chennai recorded an overall ranking of 150 and was named as one of the safest cities in India along with Hyderabad and Pune.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 24 February 2016.

Last year, Hyderabad was at 138, this year it has slipped by one point to 139 but, it still remained No 1 in India due to its relatively 'lower crime rate', 'lesser air pollution' and 'improved options for international and reputable English speaking schools'.
As indicated by Mercer, the drop in Hyderabad's international rating was because of `increased power disruptions' and 'extreme weather situation' - in 2015, the two states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh recorded 'more than 1,700 deaths due to severe heat'.
Mercer is a US-based prominent global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments that conducts annual quality of living surveys to help multinational companies compensate its employees on international assignments fairly. Some of the parameters that are considered are political and social environment, medical care and health, public services, recreation facilities and natural environment.
Incidentally, Mercer has crowned the Austrian capital Vienna as the city with the best quality of living in the world.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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476 girls studying in a Telengana polytechnic lack proper toilets in their campus

There are 476 girls studying in a Technical Training Institute at Ameerpet that offers four diploma courses -- architecture assistantship, civil engineering, computer engineering and electronics and communications engineering. Unfortunately, they do not have any proper toilet facilities and have to go out in the open or seek out secluded spots to attend to calls of nature.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 24 February 2016.

The institute is 40-years old and, apart from toilet facilities, it is also plagued by the absence of labs and equipment. The college principal has admitted to the pitiable condition of the toilets that has deteriorated over time due to the lack of maintenance. It seems the building is slated for demolition, hence this lack of toilet facilities is seen as a temporary arrangement. A new building is apparently under construction right behind the present campus but, its completion is uncertain because of "lack of government funds".
A former head of department of architecture from the college had, in November, sent a letter to the Telangana chief minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, and the state women and child welfare department - but he has not yet received any response.


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Bring back the reading habit - buy books by weight in Hyderabad

It is an undisputable fact that people have lost the habit of reading books and it is necessary to revive the book reading culture. As a result, the inventory of books is going up in book shops and, in Hyderabad, one shop has decided to sell off the brand new books on weight basis. Books like Alice in Wonderland in hardpack along with all the volumes of Aesop's Fables for your kid goes for Rs 200 per kg.
This appears to be the latest marketing gimmick that reveals the sign of the times.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 11 December 2015.

These are not old books but brand new unsold books covering subjects like fiction, cookery, lifestyle and coffee table books like Twentieth Century Conspiracies by Reader's Digest.
The cookery books are sell like hot cakes for Rs 100 per kg - most of these are lapped up by housewives and wannabe chefs. As to children's books, they go for Rs 200 per kg. Novels are priced at Rs 100, while encyclopaedias and self-help books are sold at Rs 300 per kg.

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Mysterious bulge of the pregnant South African woman caught in Hyderabad

An apparently seven-month pregnant woman of South Africa, who had arrived at the RGI airport in Hyderabad, was actually carrying not a baby but drugs concealed in her belly and private parts. She was caught by the sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) who became suspicious after looking at her passport and travel pattern over the last one week.
When subjected to medical examination, it was revealed that she had swallowed the banned drugs which were packed in small polymer packets. She was immediately rushed to Osmania Hospital to extract the packets from her body.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 31 August 2015.

The 32-year-old woman had landed from Dubai by Emirates flight and the NCB officers observed that she was walking with difficulty – she said that she was seven-month pregnant. But, once she was shifted to a hospital at the airport for preliminary examination, she admitted about the narcotics she was carrying.
By giving laxatives, the hospital staff succeeded in extracting 16 pouches of narcotics substance and it has been confirmed that there was no surgery done on her and she was under medical supervision.
Preliminary investigations from her travel pattern indicate that the origin of the drugs could be Brazil. She had landed in Dubai from Johannesburg on August 23. The next day, she took a flight to Sao Paulo City (Guarulhos International Airport) in Brazil. On August 28, she returned to Dubai from Sao Paulo and, on Sunday, she arrived at Hyderabad from Dubai.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)


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Telangana to modify Yadagirigutta temple to make its own version of Tirupati temple

The bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and the creation of the new state of Telangana has brought with it problems of a different nature that had probably not been anticipated earlier. That is the temple controversy. Andhra Pradesh has retained several temples at which people turn up in huge numbers for pilgrimage and the most famous one among them is that of Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple at Tirumala. That is believed to be the richest temple in India. And, Telangana does not have any matching temple.
Therefore, Telangana is understood to be drawing up plans to create a matching temple that could attract lakhs of visitors on a regular basis and which would boost up revenue.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 23 July 2015.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has directed that a temple be built that could match the stature of Tirumala. The temple chosen is that of the Yadagirigutta temple that is dedicated to Sri Laskhmi Narasimha Swamy. The temple town is just 50-Km from Hyderabad and is well connected by rail and road.
Right now, it receives approximately 50,000 visitors and devotees on weekends and, its revenue is already going up. Its income is now Rs 73 crores in 2014-15 as compared to Rs 66 crores in the previous year.
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Greedy teacher of Hyderabad loses Rs 4 lakh jewelry while collecting Rs 10 notes

It was a classic case of a woman paying the price of greed and most unexpected of one who had retired as a head teacher. A gang of crooks diverted her attention and ran away with a bag containing Rs 4 lakh worth of jewelry in Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 21 July 2015.

It seems she had gone along with her relatives to meet a private educational consultant. The purpose was to arrange college admission through management quota seats for her sister’s daughter. The bag of gold and silver jewelry worth Rs 4 lakhs was meant to be sold and converted to cash depending on the charges for such admission.
The woman had kept the jewelry bag next to her in the rear seat of the car and was sitting in the rear seat of the car which the driver had parked and had gone for a walk.
Suddenly, she saw some Rs 10 notes on the road near her car. She opened the door, got out and began to collect them. She had collected eight of them when she saw a man reach inside the car, pick up the bag of jewelry and run away with it.
She raised an alarm but before police arrived, the thief had made good his escape.
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Lady Doctor duped of Rs 48 lakh by a so-called NRI on matrimonial website

A lady doctor of Hyderabad has been duped of Rs 48 lakh by a fraudster who had posed as an NRI on a matrimonial website. He claimed that he was a British citizen of Indian origin and worked as an orthopedic surgeon with the British Army on a UN humanitarian mission in Iraq.
This has been reported in news18.com dated 6 July 2015.

The woman, after interacting with the man for a month, was convinced that he was genuine and never imagined that within six months, he would do the vanishing trick with Rs 48 lakh of her money.
The mode of swindling was not new – the man informed her that he would come to India and get married and, in the meantime, he would send across jewelry worth a couple of crores to her because he did not trust his relatives.
Subsequently, she received a phone call, reportedly from the Delhi airport that since the consignment was so costly, she would have to pay some processing charges to clear it through customs. The man followed up with a call telling her that it was genuine and she should pay the ‘fees’ which she did. Beginning with Rs 20 lakh, it gradually went up to Rs 48 lakh. When she became suspicious and rang him up, she found his phone switched off.
She then contacted the crime branch in Hyderabad and the case was transferred to the Delhi Police special cell.
Subsequent raids conducted by Delhi police located three persons behind the racket. They stayed in Gurgaon and two of them were from Nigeria while the third was from Nagaland.
Investigations have revealed that the so-called NRI had expressed interest in 192 girls on the site and the police are getting in touch with them to find if there we any more victims.
(Image wikimediacommons.org)

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Mangoes are forever

Ripe mangoes and mango cakes or amsatta

Trip to Hyderabad – Golconda Fort, Hussainsagar Lake

It was in August 1998 that I had an opportunity to visit Hyderabad. It was a brief visit on duty and I managed to squeeze a trip to the city to take in the sights. I have this tendency to look around and experience the joys of landing up in a new place, I always do this whenever I go to any new city and Hyderabad was no exception.
My duty schedule was tight and on the first evening I set out to book a ticket in the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation tourist bus for the city sightseeing trip. The trip would start at 7am and would be over by 5pm – and in order to reach the pick-up point, I had to leave the Guest House real early. Fortunately, I managed to get auto rickshaw and, by paying a bit extra, I reached the pick-up point in time to take in a hurried breakfast of idli sambhar – the size of the idlis were large and the breakfast was satisfying.
The tour schedule was good and I watched in fascination the enormous statue of Lord Buddha that is installed in the middle of the Hussainsagar Lake. This statue is carved out of a single piece of white rock and had been installed in 1992 and weighs 350-tonnes. It is a marvel of craftsmanship and engineering.
While passing through the city, our bus passed the Char Minar - a landmark of the city of Hyderabad.
Another landmark of Hyderabad was the Salar Jung museum – it has thousands of artefacts and items of the past eras and the best one was a marble statue of a girl with wet clothes – the folds of the dress were exquisitely created to give am impression of being the real stuff.
Of course, the attraction of this museum was the ancient clock that beat the hour – a tiny figure would emerge from the clock and, at the hour, would beat a bell and return to its hiding place. People wait eagerly to catch this unique scene. The visit to the Golconda Fort was an out of the way experience – the massive structures that had been built nearly 800 years ago are examples of the extent of expertise the old-timers had and also are proof of their knowledge of engineering.
I wanted to visit the Ramoji Film City but that was a separate kettle of fish because it was not possible to wedge it in between the regular tour package. It would need another whole day and, unfortunately, such a day has yet to come for me.