Hyderabad is an incredible place. I find it difficult to put into words how it makes me feel - it is so completely different from anything that I have ever seen before. A huge and sprawling city of more than 7 million people that is very obviously Eastern and not Western, with thousands of people filling the streets - a constant stream of bicycles, honking horns, motor cycles and mopeds travelling in every possible direction, weaving in and out of the traffic with literally inches to spare. Up to six people on one moped isn't unusual - whole families of children riding without helmets at breakneck speed perched on their mother's side-saddle knee, on the handle bars and clinging on to the bucky board.
At the side of the roads are all sorts of sights - street beggars and street traders, fruit sellers and clothes and shoe sellers, all inches from the traffic. Stalls selling hot food, people urinating against their carts, rats beneath their feet. The smell in the air is so unusual - a mix of spices and food, dust and dirt, all blended with what seems to be a universal backdrop of open sewers.
We have been collected from the airport by one of the pastors from the city. He is a small man with an obviously warm heart. All around the vehicle is traffic jampacked together, and it is late at night now. So many neon lights and advertising hoardings! It is so noisy.
We don't have enough time to grab a bed for the night, because we are taking the overnight train to Vijaywada, so we will just eat and rest for an hour or so with this brother and his family. The meal on the plane was a thick curry with lots of green lime pickle and a chapati, so I am steeling myself for a month of Delhi belly!
Our hosts treated us to a biriani meal with a spicy daal, chicken in black pepper, and a hot and sour curry/sauce/gravy. Their home was very basic and the fact that they watched us eat without joining us, made me suspect that they had made a real sacrifice to provide so much for us. They are a gracious Christian family seeking to serve those passing through in order to preach elsewhere - a huge crucifix sits on the table where we ate with an obviously agonised Jesus staring out at us. Yum.
I am impacted by their warmth.
Posted by pencils at January 16, 2004 04:16 PM | TrackBack