Unique Hyderabad - Part I

Every city is unique in its own way. Sometimes we might find it amusing, sometimes annoying. Hyderabad is also one amongst those cities which is unique in its own way..

1. This city has maintained the misconception of being cheap in such an awesome manner that everyone who is outside Hyderabad, by that I mean, who hasn’t been staying here think that’s the case. Which let me tell you is TOTALLY wrong. Hyderabad is NOT CHEAP!!!
2. The traffic here is terrific. I used to think Bangalore is hell…but well…let me tell you…Hyderabad’s even worse. People cross the road staring at your speeding car, confident enough that you are going to slow down. However, they do not increase their speed of crossing the road. People out here have a habit of driving on the wrong side of the road (guess they believe that the chances of an accident are reduced doing this as the car coming in-front of you can directly see you!). So one has to be extremely careful while driving on their left..
3. People staying in Mumbai think Pune is laid back, people in Pune think Bangalore’s laid back, and people staying anywhere in the world will surely believe that Hyderabad is laid back. Everyone here lives in their “Nawabi” style. They think themselves as princes and that everyone else has enough time on their hands so that they can be kept waiting. You call it at 3, they will turn up at 3:30 (sometimes they cancel the plans of meeting you after keeping you waiting for 45 minutes)
4. Shop-keepers here are not aware of the “Customer king” principle as yet! They trust in God for Him to send them customers (retain them in the shop as well)..They will do their part of imparting what they know about the product (price most of the times). Apart from this, He is expected to take care!
5. The auto-rickshaws out here are another sight. They are unique for several reasons;
a. They defy the basic law of 3 seats – They write “only 4 seats” on the sides of their vehicles…where the law permits only 3!!!
b. Now, they have a funda of a shared rickshaw, wherein they stuff as much as 7 people at a time to shorter distances , thus benefitting themselves as well as the customers on cheap fares (I don’t see how though)
c. Autos here do not go by the meter system…Now you’ll say that’s just fine…No…Some of them don’t even have a meter..Now beat that!!! Which metro / cosmo in India will give you such a sight / shock???...

These are some unique qualities of this city of Nawabs and Nizams. I am on my quest to find positives about the uniqueness of this city, have gathered some, not enough for a post though…..:-)