Too Close to Home

I am not sure if this will make the news back home and if it does how big a deal will be made about it but it was far too close for comfort and extremely disturbing that this is happening in Hyderabad.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/42_killed_50_injured_in_Hyderabad_blasts/articleshow/2311327.cms

One of the places the bomb went off I have been to, and bombs were found in places I as well as much of my family go to fairly frequently. Luckily no one I know personally was near either of them but while I was at dinner last night with some of my cousins one of them got a text telling her that one of the sender's friend died in the blast. They suspect a few Jihad groups aided by terrorist organization centered in Bangladesh.

Updating about anything else im doing right now seems trivial at the moment so I won't.

Namaste and Welcome

So I have realized that I am among the masses of the technoliterate that enjoy the phenomenon of blogging and have thus decided to continue where the Tanzania blog left off. Because I have had a moderately good response from the previous blog and the convenience of letting all you family and friends know about my going ons this way instead of individually I hope you all enjoy the many posts to come.

I arrived here in Hyderabad at a good time, yesterday August 15th was our Independence Day. It was strange being in my country for its independence day because unlike July 4th it felt significant not because I would see fireworks and eat barbecue (which i actually did eat last night but only as a matter of coincedence) but because we had so recently won our independence and the change since that time is so apparent. Although it has been interesting to watch how the country and primarily this city change from visit to visit this time in particular has surprised me most. It is due most likely to the fact that for the first time this is the place that people want to be, which is due to all the outsourcing we hear so much about. The purchasing power of people here is also dumbfounding, this amazing pointed building is a housing development here in Hyderabad. I dont remember the exact numbers but something like 300 apartments that sold for over $300,000 a piece sold out in 3 days of going on sale. Although I have seen various other chains from the states here like subway and pizza hut they finally have a couple Mcdonald's (that i have yet to visit). So anyway India is developing like crazy and that 3rd world status will no longer be around from the looks of it.

Yesterday to celebrate I went and did a little volunteer work with a national organization called Bhumi that was doing a really cool service project here in light of the holiday. They seem like a really motivated organization mirroring alot of the values and ideals of Nourish primarily the sustainability aspect of it. Like us they are also a fledgling organization learning as they go driven by altruism and a sense of national pride. The project I helped out with was the building of an underfunded government school.

I have been doing a lot of reading here which I think is a much more contructive way to spend my free time than watching tv, since it will also help keep me up to speed for Verbal practice. I just finished Hocus Pocus by the late Kurt Vonnegut. I would definitely recommend it to any Vonnegut fans but only after some other more prominent titles of his if you are a newbie (Slaughterhouse 5, and Cat's Cradle). I am about to begin Mother Night, another Vonnegut after I get through with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a little book J.K. Rowling wrote on the side about the wizarding world. (I got it for my little cousin but i sort of got it for me too)

That is all for now, my posts will probably more infrequent since I am not doing that much interesting stuff here except for STUDYING!! But I will post don't worry.