Hello, from the top bunk of a sleeper overnight express train (which I am currently sharing with Pujitha because this train got overbooked). We are on our way from Hyderabad to Nellore. It is a 10 hour journey and I should probably be sleeping. Since I am notoriously incapable of sleeping on things that move, I have decided to start this post.
Today, my last day in Hyderabad, was rather exciting because we got a private tour of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh's personal office! Including the room where he holds press conferences, meetings, and even his personal nap room! If you have seen the telugu movie Leader, it actually looks something like that. It was very, very cool.
How on earth did we get access? As it turns out, my dad went to Veterinary School with someone who ended up as an IAS officer in Hyderabad and has an office in the Secretariat (which is like the white house, except for Andhra Pradesh). Also, the CM himself was out of state today so his office was empty and available for touring. I wish I could have taken pictures, but our camera was locked up as soon as we entered the building for the sake of security.
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| This is the outside. It was hard even getting a picture of this. |
In Hyderabad, we moved into my other uncle's home (he is my mom's older brother and Raghava's father). On Monday morning, my uncle took me to his hospital. He is a dermatologist, but spends the first half of his day working as an internist at a Railway Hospital in Hyderabad. As I learned, government owned and operated hospitals such as these are truly a world apart from hospitals in the US. Nobody gets private rooms. Instead, there is a gigantic ward with rows of beds right next to each other. Everything is also kind of dirty and smells of phenol cleaner. But hospital costs are probably considerably lower (which makes sense, since I doubt many patients have health insurance to cover their bills).
Because of the diversity of cases you see in such hospitals, they're generally really good for learning. I however didn't see any standout cases except for one woman with stroke of the right internal capsule and resulting left hemiparesis. I had to perform a neurological exam on her and missed a few cranial nerves :/
On Tuesday, we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 (which was awesome!) in IMAX 3D at Prasad's Mall Complex and on Wednesday, Raghava, Pujitha, Vishnu and I did a bit of sightseeing at Golconda Fort and the Seven Tombs of Qutub Shahi. I only recently realized how many Telugu movie songs are filmed at Golkonda (or are they all sets??).
The four of us went a fancy restaurant afterwards, where we partook in the most ridiculous buffet ever.
Now we are off to Nellore, which is the closest I have to a hometown, to visit my dad's side of the family. Back to the coast! I shall greatly miss this non-humid weather.
Continued in India Part 4
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