It has been more than six years after I relocated to India, but never managed to visit Ramoji Film City till today. Given that the time with Sunitha and kids is short, we wanted to make use of the weekend. Even though it is tough to wake up early after the Diwali night activity, we managed to get ready by 8.50am and reached Ramoji Film City by about 10.00am. The gang included me, Latha, Spurthi, Surya, Sunitha, Nidhi, Nikhil, attayya, RK, Sunitha and Sravya. There is considerable crowd at the entrance, so we opted for a special Sitara package that costs Rs 800 (approximately 20USD) per person. That includes tour in a air conditioned coach, lunch at Sitara restaurant and a few other freebies. It later turned out to be money well spent.

We couldn’t cover the entire film city with the pace suitable for kids. We attended a few shows and then took a lunch break. During the afternoon, we spent our time in Fundustan zone till kids are really tired. Then we ate some snacks and returned home by 7.30pm.

Between me and Sunitha, we took about 150+ photographs and here are some of them.

RFC2007

Now let me talk about my personal experience of the trip. The place is awesome! I would strongly recommend the place for an outing, especially for family based outings. The pre-built sets, including that of the airport, airplane, neighborhoods, jails, hospitals, etc. is worth watching. We didn’t get a chance to visit any indoor sets, but I guess they wouldn’t be of any lower quality or magnitude too.The entire film city is well maintained and the support staff are very courteous. The Sitara restaurant is simply great for its ambiance, quality of service and food. The air conditioning is well maintained at all places. The only problem is with the not so well ordered crowd, who want to rush for everything and anything.

The Movie Magic show is fun to watch, but changing to three seating areas makes a group go in disarray. The World Tour is a worth watching imitation of Disney Land’s “Its a small world” theme. The Stunt Show is good too. Borasura is good pass time. The parts of Thrillville we visited are good.

BTW, the food and beverages at this place are at reasonable prices. We didn’t even consume the freebies given to us as part of the package though.

Sunitha, Rani and Attayya did some shopping in Charminar area on Wednesday. Nikhil and Nidhi are not in a mood to enjoy shopping, so I accompanied Sunitha and others to take care of kids. I took Nidhi and Nikhil to Charminar and here are some photos:

CharminarTripNov2007

The last two photos are taken by Nidhi and Nikhil. Rani left early from shopping and then we continued our shopping in Abids area. I took kids to lunch at McDonalds and rest of us ate a late sandwich lunch in the car.BTW, I grabbed a serving of Falooda in the old city after a long time. This Rs 10 serving tastes a lot better than the polished version we get in luxury hotels in other parts of the city. Cool!

Seetaphal (custard apple) is one of the most cherished seasonal fruit in coastal Andhra Pradesh. In Hyderabad, the fruit’s availability is increasing in the last few years. This fruit is mostly available during September timeframe for a couple of months.
Spurthi and Surya were not so keen on this fruit in their early years in India, but starting last year, they grew their liking of this fruit. Also, Sunitha and Ravi are visiting India (especially in this season) after a long time, so it is a good chance for them to eat as many as they can. This year, I have a better opportunity to ensure continuous supply of this fruit at home.

In the last month and half I made several trips to places where they bring these fruits en masse from remote remote locations. I go there by 6.30am to buy the early morning load. I typically buy a basket of these (containing anywhere from 50 to 75) and make them ripe at home in a box padded with leaves. Here is the view of the ripe fruit this morning.

A basket of these fruits typically last for about 3-4 days for us. Surya ate these fruits regularly this season. Sunitha is happy too to get a good supply during her visit. Latha and myself are good consumers anyway. Nidhi and Nikhil are yet to like these.

This week or next will mark and end to this year’s season of these fruits. So it is our last chance to grab as many as we can.

Wednesday is quite different from many days in my last 20 years. For starters, I typed a resume. :-). I am going to write about it later. Post lunch, I headed to meet some of my school mates. I started with a few of my 6th to 10th grade schoolmates and then met few other folks from our village (that live in Hyderabad now.) All these dozen plus people are in construction business and none of them know anything about information technology industry.
The first few hours are spent in visiting the construction sites and taking a look at their business models, pain points, inventory flows, sales pitches and so on. Issues like blasting the hindering boulders, insufficient inventories of bricks and planning sewers. One common outcome with IT industry though: the architects and builders (read product bosses) got wiser as they delivered more ventures (read software products). In fact, I felt that the brick and mortar industry folks learn more from every venture than thier IT counterparts.

With booming real estate business, even small builders (people who are constructing few tens of thousands of square feet) are delegating or outsourcing (they do not use such formal words) some of their work items. Like centering the slabs and flattening the land. A healthy sign that helps distribute the profits and focus the expertise.

Men from our village are good cooks and they takeover the kitchen, especially when the gathering is at a (temporary) bachelor’s place. A dozen of us gathered at Varma’s place in the evening. Srinu (aka Tinku) cooked very tasty chicken biriyani. We watched cricket during our dinner and headed home after 9.30pm.