Friday morning, it was a bit of panic attack for me. Everything went fine, I got my office shuttle on time. My flight was scheduled for departure @ 10:15 a.m. However much to my horror I was stuck in the traffic jam. My one eye was on the wrist watch and the other was staring @ the traffic. It gave me goose bumps coz I had to be @ the airport atleast 30 mins prior to the flight departure before the airline counter gets closed.

Thankfully I managed to reach the counter exactly 30 mins before departure. The flight landed @ the Hyderabad airport @ 11:40 a.m (25 mins behind schedule). As I came out of the Hyderabad airport, I started thinking that within an hour, I had covered a distance of 550 k.ms. If I would have undertaken the journey by road, it would have taken around 11 hours. The other good thing was now-a-days, the flights have become affordable. I have purchased my to and fro tickets for a steal..INR 3000. Can you beat that..:) Of course I had to book the ticket a month in advance but it was worth the wait. My outward journey by Spicejet was priced @ INR 99 and the return journey by Air Deccan is INR 324. The rest of the fare comprises of taxes + fuel surcharge + congestion levy.

My home is approximately an hour away from the airport. This time I wanted to try the MMTS service. It's the equivalent of the mumbai local train. It was a pleasant journey by the train. There was no pollution + the train was quite punctual halting @ the stops for only 3 seconds. When I looked out of the train window, I could see that Hyderabad has changed. What was once a city which was languishing @ the bottom of the heap when compared to the other metros in India has now transformed.

The swanky buildings @ HI-TEC City (Hyderabad Information Technology and Engineering Consultancy City), the wide roads, the neatly maintained railway stations, India's first I-MAX screen, IT parks which house the top IT companies, real estate which is experiencing a boom, it's all happening. The only thing which Hyderabad lacks is lots of greenery when compared to Bangalore and the climate which can really get worse in summer.

In the evening I watched the movie "300" which tells the story of 300 spartan soldiers fighting the million strong Persian army. The special effects was quite good and it was awesome watching it on the I-MAX screen. Google the company for which my sis works had booked the entire movie hall for its employees and their family + friends.

Today i.e 17th March is my birthday. It's customary for me to seek divine blessings on this special occasion. My mom took me to the temple and then I visited another temple with my kid brother. I am not a very religious person however I felt an inner peace when I visited the places of worship.

What better way than to celebrate your birthday by cutting a cake and sharing it with family members. I am now 32 but age as they say is just a statistic, it's the maturity and the experience that counts..:)