Travel Book Logs

The new airport at Hyderabad was completed in March 2008 several months ahead of schedule catching almost everyone by surprise.  Hats off to the GMR consortium for delivering on time and in style.  To get an idea of the “surprise”, the roads and hotel infrastructure around the airport are still catching up with the airport.  The flyover at Medhipatnam built for the sole purpose of diverting airport traffic is only going to be completed in September 2008.

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad as it is officially called ran into speed bumps even as the curtains were to be raised.  Many locals were extremely vocal about the choice of Rajeev gandhi’s name for the airport.  Fair complaint in my opinion.  However try explaining that to a Congress government.  Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the airport on March 14th, 2008 almost three years to the day of laying the foundation stone.  First flight arrival was the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt which also became the first departure flight when it turned around a couple of hours later.  More information on the airport can be found at the Hyderabad International Airport website.

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Every once in a while you walk into a restaurant that gets it right. The food is good, the ambience makes you feel good and you walk away knowing that you will be back again. Thats how I felt when I was at Little Italy in Hyderabad the first time and I’ve been there again a few times since. Little Italy delivers a solid menu that is sensible, full of good choices and is consistent with their quality.

The menu is completely vegetarian so meat eating aficionados beware. Truth is you hardly miss the option. Most italiano places are vegetarian with the exception of a few dishes like Spaghetti Bolognese and pizza. But the salads and pastas at Little Italy set the pace for some great cuisine. The salads are crunchy and served in generous portions. Salad dressings are the real deal – freshly prepared and full of flavor that adds to the salad crunch. I recommend the Corleone or the Insalata de Rucola. Fresh lettuce and sun dried tomatoes with olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing on the Corleone salad offer a glimpse of the famous Sicilian town with the same name. For those interested in a starter, I recommend the Melazane Arrosto – roasted aubergines served with olive oil and chopped garlic.

My first course recommendation for those who like a little spice is the Penne Pasta with Arrabiatta sauce, a tomato based sauce with chillies, garlic and parsley. The Bolognese sauce catches my attention because interestingly the Bolognese sauce here is made with soya mince – something best left alone for those who have a taste for the real thing. For vegetarians this seems to be a great option. If you are one please let me know what you think. There is also a wide variety of authentic wood burn pizzas which I have not had a chance to try out as yet. Keep in mind that authentic Italian pizzas are quite different from American style pizzas that most are familiar with. Italian pizza is closer to a nan style bread with simple toppings on a layer of cheese or tomato sauce.

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My long quest for a new cell phone came to an end last month when I picked up the Nokia E61i – a superb response from those remarkable Finns to the RIM Blackberry. My search took longer than expected because I found that its not enough to just have a phone – you need up to date information as well. A few years ago I had thought the laptop was the solution but a hand held device is more suitable. And for long the best solution on the market has been the Blackberry device.

Research in Motion (RIM) offers some nifty solutions for those who need this kind of connectivity. Their website lists out the devcies they have an offer, front lined by the Blackberry 8100 Pearl, the Blackberry 8300 Curve and the Blackberry 8800. If you are a business phone user this is a superb selection of devices. All supported by their famous push email service which pops your email inbox to your device. The popularity and power of this device can only be realized once you notice the sheer number of people using Blackberry devices these days. So much so that detractors have coined a term to describe the phenomenon i.e. the “Crackberry”.

And I did the give the Blackberry a try – the Blackberry 8800 . For a longtime Nokia user, the feel of the device is different. Catching a signal can be tricky. And surprisingly, though they are famous for their rugged build quality, support for repair of Blackberry devices is dismal in India at the moment. Blackberry users will tell you that once your device needs repair it usually takes a few weeks if at all you are able to qualify for authorized repair. Blackberry devices unfortunately do have issues to be solved as yet.

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