Sudeep D'Souza

Here are some of the pictures that I took from Shilparamam during the Dusshera festivities that happened there. These are some performances that were happening in the shopping area.

Hyderabad is becoming a haven for training institutes that can teach you anything under the sun. Some of the questions that I would like to explore in this entry are - What is the quality of these institutes? What are the reasons for these institutes to thrive in this city? Are these institutes good for the image of the software industry in the city? Let me now try and give you my views on each of these questions. What is the quality of these institutes? The quality in most of these institutes that thrive in and around the Ameerpet area is bad. I was one of the unfortunate ones that had to endure a one weeks training from a faculty from one of these institutes. The organization that I was working for was looking to train a bunch of developers on Microfocus COBOL and this course was not being offered by any of the recognized training institutes. We then found one institute in Ameerpet that was supposedly doing the course in their institute and was willing to do a one week course for u

Some pictures that I took of the Birla Mandir.

One of the principles in Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt's Theory of Constraints goes like “The speed of your system is only as fast as the slowest process that you have in your system”. And this simple truth has enabled many large organizations achieve fantastic productivity. I would now like to apply this theory to my pet topic of late and that is to the Roads of Hyderabad. Let us consider the system to be the road network. In this network the speed at which the traffic will flow will depend on the speed of the traffic at the narrowest portion of the road. So if someone asks a question how many vehicles will move in an hour from Point A to Point B, its fairly simple, find out what is the size of the narrowest portion of the road between point A and point B and calculate how many vehicles can get through there in an hour and you have your answer. The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has been doing a spate of road widening activities of late – matter of fact I think they have gone berserk

Something that I learnt yesterday was an eye opener for me. A home loan agent was talking to me about how there is a great deal of difference in the registration charges when one goes to buy a new house that is being constructed by a builder and a house on resale. Let me walk you through this with an example. Lets say you are interested in buying a house that costs about Rs. 22 lakhs and you plan to take a home loan of Rs. 20 lakhs. In the case of the new house the Rs. 20 lakhs is shown to you in the form of a sale agreement for just the shell and a construction agreement for completing the house. and this is usually done in the ratio of 30 - 40 % for the sale agreement and 60-70 % for the construction agreement (in our case it works out to 7 lakhs for the sale and 13 lakhs for the construction). Now the registration is done on the value of the sale agreement and hence the cost of registration drastically drops. On the other hand when you buy a house on resale there is only one loan

There have been a few comments that have been posted on my last couple of articles on How do we ease traffic ? and Why do we have clogged up roads ? . My line of thought for solving this problem of high density of traffic and low density of roads that our city has is that we need to have a good public transportation system that consists of not one but a whole array of existing and new transportation systems that work in a well coordinated and synchronized manner instead of trying to compete with each other. I admit we have got ourselves into a mess in terms of bad city planning, lack of regard for zoning laws, frivolous FSI, rampant bribery in the roads and buildings divisions and arbitrary decisions being made trying to solve the problems that exist. Due to all these things we have a transportation issue on our hands which would not have existed (hopefully) if all the above had not taken place. What I am stating is that we are only making a bigger mess by taking short term decision

Update : The last that I have heard of this place is that it has closed down. Pity, as this was one place you could expect some quality conti food at a reasonable cost. Sizzlers, Steaks, Russian Salad... Do these dishes make your mouth water? If the answer to this question is " Yes " then I know just the place that you can have this food to your hearts content right here in Hyderabad. On Road No. 12 Banjara Hills right next to Pizza Hut is a hole in the wall kind of a place - it has about 4 tables on the mezzanine floor and 2 tables and the kitchen on the ground floor - the sizzlers and the russian salad are really good. You would have to put up with the fumes while your food is being cooked but its worth it. There is an option to order take-away too but I am not sure what would a sizzler taste like when eaten 10 min after it has been sizzling so my advise would be to have it at the restraunt itself. Happy Eating.

As a follow up to my last article on how road widening and building bridges are very short term solution I would like to answer some interesting thoughts that an anonomous comment has raised. The first fact that was raised is "Each year, Hyderabad city is adding about 2 lakh vehicles." - well you can't dispute fact. But lets ask ourselves why are there so many vehicles being added And then the comment goes on to list as to why is there such an increase in vehicles and that is - "This increase is not merely because there is no public transportation system. It is to a significant extent because of credit markets." "Hyderabad is being redesigned for the enjoyment and profiteering of some 1 per cent or less of the urban population. And nobody objects to this because most people imagine that they will somehow be within that one per cent if not today, well then very soon, they think they will get there. " We have moved along from a socialist economy of

Today turned out to be quite a significant day in my life for three reasons. First of all there are two people out in the world that read my blog and posted comments. A big thank you to them and I will try and reply to your mails as soon as I get some time. When people post comments it has a ripple effect - it motivates me to keep writing and it also gives me new topics to write about. So all you people out there who happen to read my blog do keep your comments flowing in. Secondly my blog introduced me to another person who happens to be in Hyderabad and have exactly the same name as me - yes he also goes by the name Sudeep D'Souza. Well, its quite wonderful to know that in this world of over 6 billion people there can be someone who has the same first name and last name as yours and also live in the same city. And the third reason is that I got myself into google . Feels pretty good to get listed there although I know it is pretty far fetched that someone would type in "s

Traffic in Hyderabad is getting worse each day and the solution every one can come up with is road widening and building a flyover. But these are such short term measures - one shorter than the other. The reason I say one is shorter than the other is for the following reasons. Let me first tell you the drawbacks of road widening - They are taking away space from the driveway of the building. So where does every one exit their vehicles - there is just one place the road. - They are reducing the parking in the buildings - so where do you park your vehicle - just one place the road. - They are removing the sidewalk - so where do you walk - just one place the road. As you can see that the road that just got expanded at the expense of the tax payer has got used for all the things except what it was meant to be used for. This is a story played out on so many of the roads that have been widened yet there are more and more proposals to widen roads. Road widening is no solution. To a lesser

Biryani - A must have for all those who visit Hyderabad. There are a lot of places that serve biryani and in all the years that I have been in Hyderabad I have never been to two places that serve the same kind of biryani. There is a biryani that is called Hyderabadi Biryani but to be frank I never really made out the difference. For all the historians that are food lovers here is one version of the Biryani Story . But then for those that want a Hyderabadi twist to the story here is another version . Well I did a search of Google and I got another story altogether. Enough about the history - let me get down to where one can find some good biryani to eat. The best Biryani to date that I have had at a price that would hardly pinch your pocket is Cafe Bahar . Its address is - Cafe Bahar, Old MLA Qtrs Road, Hyderguda, Hyderabad . The best way to enjoy the biryani is to take the biryani home and eat. The place is not the cleanest place you would want to be eating your food and neither

An evening out on Hussain Sagar Lake is something that most visitors that come to Hyderabad have to experience. In this article I intend to outline as to what would be my schedule for an ideal evening by this lake. I would like to start my evening at around 5:00 in the evening and that would be at the Lumbini Park on the banks of the lake. From here there is boating (speed boat and a launch) which provide one with magnificient views of the Buddha Statue that is located on an island in the middle of the lake. For the more adventurous para-gliding is offered. The children have ample space to play here with a jungle gym, swings and a small toy car that goes on a track around the park. After spending a couple of hours at this park I would head for the musical fountain show that is to one side of the park. This is located in a well constructed amphi-theater but one needs to make sure that they are not sitting in direct blast from the rather large speakers that belt out desi hits to whi

About 25 km outside Hyderabad towards Gandipet lies a peaceful serene and beautiful getaway called Alankrita. It's developed based on the ethnic theme and the surroundings and the ambiance reflects the theme. What's nice about the place is the greenery around and you can actually hear birds chirping which is a real pleasure when you consider that the only things you hear in the city is the cacophony of horns . They have different types of rooms - they have double rooms to cottages. The cottages are nicely tucked away in the trees and there is a lot of privacy offered. They are quite spacious with a nice luxurious bedroom with a small dressing room and a pretty large bath. Even the rooms are well laid out with nice views to be had. The place has three restaurants pretty much serving all the different kinds of Indian food that you can wish for. We did not try out any of the continental or Chinese fare on offer. Two of the restaurants are partly open air and one of the restaura

Do you think you can find your way through the maze below. This is one of the main thoroughfares through the city of Hyderabad. This is typically what happens - it rains - the traffic signals go off - the cops stay out of the rain - since the signals are off everyone takes off from the stop line as if its the start of a race to the other side of the road - the first few lucky ones get through - the others end up somewhere in the maze shown and all the other unlucky ones get stuck somewhere way behind. Now you might wonder what happens if you dont start and wait for the traffic signals to start again or a cop to come and direct the traffic. There are few of the many things that may happen - you may have to make an appointment with the ENT specialist to get your ears checked up due to the cacophony of horns behind you or you might just get run over or worse the traffic would just reach you and surround you from all sides like an octopus wanting to give you that all encompassing hug. Wh

I have seen this situation in a zillion books but when faced with this situation I just dont know what to apply from what I have read. For the last few days I have two teams that are battling it out over a problem. Each of the teams has their own way of doing it and both solve the problem and both have their pros and their cons. I belong to one of these teams. The deadline is drawing closer and closer and both the sides are getting desperate for their solution to get selected. And the best part is the two teams are seperated by 6000 miles in two different continents and their only medium of communication is telephones and emails. We have been arguing so much over which is the best way to solve the problem that it is becoming evident that both sides are getting fed up of each other and both the sides are succumbing to the "whatever" route. The result of this is that we are losing focus on solving the problem and we are ending up with a "whatever" kind of a solution

I have been reading a lot of blogs of late and I have two questions - why do people write blogs and why do people read others blogs. Some of my thoughts on this is that a blog closely resembles a public diary of the individual - the individuals thoughts and actions. And why do people write blogs is maybe because they want to capture images of their life and their thoughts in words. Sounds very logical to me and that is exactly what i want to do. I just want to capture some of my views on things and just be able to collect them in one single place. Why do people read blogs - I have no idea. Why do I read blogs ? Some of the titles that the blogs have interest me or pique my interest and then I go in and read a few pages - do I go and read every page the user has written - well I have read only one bloggers every single page and the reason is that he writes things that are very practical and you can learn a lot from his thoughts and actions. In case anyone happens to read my blog well