Hyderabad 2007 - Round 3

I'm back in Hyderabad. I arrived late last night via what's become my standard route on Lufthansa flights 423 (Boston to Frankfurt) and 752 (Frankfurt to Hyderabad). It's about 17 hours of flying, with a 5 hour layover. I've made frequent flier status on Lufthansa, so I was at least able to board with business class and use the comfortable business class lounge in Frankfurt - but it's still a long trip.

On the way I finished reading Shantaram, an autobiographical novel by Gregory David Roberts. It's a huge book, and I found myself pushing to get through it, after being completely enthralled by the first third. The book started off being primarily a description of life in India, and when it switched to being all about the author it lost its punch. But it's most definitely worth reading, at least through the beginning of the imprisonment at Authur Road.

My last few days in the U.S. were too busy to be particularly satisfying. Beside the inevitable last minute errands I also packed in a delightful party at my manager's home, Amelia B-G's annual birthday picnic at Walden Pond, and some angst about the Lumbini Park/Koti bombings. Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!

Amelia's picnic - I don't know how I got so lucky, but I long chats with with Pam-I-Am and Luke.



Dan's Monday night party was also fun.



The latest Hyderabad bomb blasts, though, I could have done without. None of my friends and acquaintences were directly affected, but the city is on edge.

The air was clear for much of the second leg of the flight, and we were given nice views of Iran. As usual, pictures through the plane window are pretty lame, but what the hey. Southeastern Iran looks like Mars.



Anyway, I have to get to bed before I fall asleep at the keyboard. One last picture: Hyderabad is still giving away sunsets - "For you? No charge!" :-)