I was requested by my director a month ago to visit our new branch in Hyderabad. It was a network-building, client relationship visit. Hence, we planned a lot to meet a couple of existing and the new clients in Hyderabad. As it was a morning flight, happened to start my home from 3:00 a.m. setting aside my sleep. My journey began with Indigo 5:00 a.m. flight from Bangalore to Hyderabad. I was on time and able to reach Hyderabad by 6:10. Then I took a cab and nearly spent an hour to reach the hotel. Relaxed a bit and headed to the office. As it was a pretty new branch hardly 10 of us worked together for a week. The moment I landed in Hyderabad, it started raining and all our planned activities started getting postponed.

In Hyderabad, the roads are much wider and comfortable to travel. But the worst part is the Poor drainage system. If it rains for half an hour the water log is too heavy and the situation turns worse. All the drivers freely drive vehicles in the water log. During rain, if anybody wants to book a cab/taxi the charges will be too high. Rapido is used more than Uber and Ola. As Rapido people give 15 trips free, and the commission is slightly lower than Uber, Ola- by default preference of rapid is a wise choice.

In the office, I met all new Folks, spent quality time with a quick intro discussion, and got back to my work. I took a few interviews and struggled a bit with the Wi-Fi setup. I had a new person on boarded to my team too. Hence sat with her and briefed her well on the work. Gave her a vision of the objectives and goals too. As it rained all our clients postponed the meeting and we ended up having virtual calls.

As usual, I finished the work around 7 p.m. and headed to meet a few new friends in Haldiram restaurant. Along with our sales manager Aditya, we headed towards the restaurant and met Mr Vamshi. 7 of them were supposed to visit and due to the Rain only Vamshi could make it. We had a good time exchanging thoughts, knowing his inspiring journey from an employee to an entrepreneur of 3 startups at a young age. We had some snacks and then headed towards our nests.

On Tuesday morning, in spite of heavy rain, I made up my mind to visit Peddamma Talli temple which is in Jubilee Hills. I was called by an unknown aunt to mix turmeric and ghee in the rice and offer it to goddess Peddamma. The priest also allowed me to see the idol from very close by and gave me bangles from the God's Idol. I had darshan, sat for a while enjoying the architecture of the temple, and then headed towards the office. In the office, we had little bit of discussions, daily calls and headed to meet the client to ask me guru which was close to our office. The Founder was a typical locality who started his career in a restaurant and ended up as an entrepreneur building CRM websites for retail, and non-profit sectors. I Was inspired by his journey, got a few requirements from him then moved to the office. After having the lunch we continued with our work And headed back to the restaurant.

Wednesday was an auspicious day for me. It was Krishna Janmashtami and unknowingly I got an opportunity to visit the Jagannath temple which is in Jubilee Hills. It's one of the best temples in Hyderabad. I was fortunate to be there on a special day and got two new friends from Holistic Hospital too. Lord Jagannath, Balbhadra, Subhadra statue caught my eye with utmost devotion. The God chantings with it's unique architecture will attract any devotees. The beautiful view of the temple and unique architecture took me to a new world. I had Prasada, took a few snaps, had a good time with two new friends and went to the office. We were able to establish a connection with a new client through a virtual call for our business. We also had an external meeting which was very fruitful. The same day evening, I had my schoolmate, who works quite close to my office agreed to meet me. Finally, we both met, had snacks, and ice creams, recalled old good memories, and returned to our shelters, with those sweet memories.

On Thursday I decided to explore the metro, as my destination was Birla Mandir. As I stayed in HITECH City, I boarded the train in HITEC City and exchanged the red line in Ameerpet. Got down at Lakadi ka pul station which is walkable to Birla Mandir. As phones were restricted in Birla Mandir, the darshan was really good and enjoyed the cool Breeze on top of the temple. Along with Lord Venkateswara got the darshan of Sai Baba too. Had my breakfast near the temple and headed back to the office. In spite of my temple visit, I was able to reach office, much before the time. We had two external guests in our office, had good meetings and built the corporate relationship. Got a chance to know more about SHRM course certificates, drones and Marines used for defense field, etc. We continued with our work and stepped out to meet one of our existing clients in Ameerpet. It was great really meeting the SPOC, with whom I coordinated for various months without seeing. I also got an opportunity to meet one of our deployed resources who is been working there from 7 months. After meeting them while returning I also got an opportunity to meet one of my ex-colleagues who is suffering from Sarcoidosis. I went on asking questions to know more about it. I got to know, it's a unique,rare disease, where in the calcium level automatically increases in the entire body, and it will affect the whole parts of the body. Once the steroids get injected, it will thicken the lumps formed and will help to balance the calcium level. With continuous treatment, the energy, and stamina go down, and the patient won't stay long run. I felt sad for his family and also appreciated his boldness of accepting the challenge courageously, motivating his wife, to get into the work and be independent after his last breath. He works as a senior manager on SAP skills. His choice was a love marriage and didn't want to put his wife and two kids in trouble. While discussing he also mentioned he increased the insurance amount to 30 lakhs, and the Term life policy to 1 crore thinking about family safety. He got permanent work from home too. He had already built the house, well-planned to finish off his loans. In spite of those challenges, he took time to drop me back to my restaurant. On the way along with his family, he took me for a city tour, showed me his office, Hospital, and cable Bridge, and shared his plans and emotions. As I am in HR, he asked my opinion on making his wife an entrepreneur and be a backbone to the kids in his absence. I really liked his early preparations in spite of the challenges and pains. After all a dad is always a dad and I could see that spirit in him. The wife was at home from nearly 7 years and his confidence of making her an entrepreneur depicts his vision clearly.

On Friday as it was my last day there, I decided to visit Sri Venkateswara temple TTD, which is in Jubilee Hills. The temple view is similar to Tirupati. It's pretty huge and slightly on top. Even though I visited to temple failed to get Darshan, as it was closed for decoration till 8:30 a.m. But in the same temple, I had darshan of Lord Ganesha. I enjoyed the cool breeze, the Scenic beauty and headed to Hare Krishna temple which is just 2 km away from there. As it was the next day of the Krishna Janmashtami celebration, I was fortunate to get involved in the bhajans, visit goshala, etc. Having a nice Darshan moved to the office. We had a special mail from one of our employees who wrote to the sales manager for leave approval using chat GPT which helped us to celebrate Friday. We couldn't really control laughter. Laughed a lot, activated our muscles got into our work. I wanted to offer a resource whom I wanted to onboard on the upcoming Monday. Hence did several discussions, closed the deal and succeeded in closing the offer. All 5 days when I was in Hyderabad my sales manager used to bring me a Hyderabad-style lunch which was heavy but tasty. My heart full of thanks to him for making my days good with homemade food. Hats off to his mom who used to prepare and pack lunch for both of us. After the work Aditya dropped me off at the hotel. I thanked for his support and moved on. I vacated the room, took a taxi to the airport. It nearly took an hour. As my flight was at 9:00 p.m. I had a good amount of time. One of my friend who agreed to meet me at airport couldn't come due to hectic work. As I had good amount of time went to the food lounge and finished my dinner. I met a new friend who was from Chennai to converse. The proud parents came with two daughters for a Jaipur trip and connected well with me. The elder daughter is studying Ph.D. in the UK. My second daughter is doing MS in Singapore. Parents are so proud of both and claim, their Moto is giving a good education to both daughters. They wished me before they could leave and we departed. I did shopping of Hyderabadi biscuits, sweets, chocolates, books, etc., and finally boarded the flight at 9:10 p.m. As it was raining heavily, I was late to reach the projected time. My husband and son waited in the airport for too long and we could meet around 10.45 p.m. 

Finally, we reached home around 12:30 a.m. with a note from my son's mamma what's the time? We could have happily driven the car from Hyderabad to Bangalore and reached earlier. Sometimes travelling via flight becomes painful with unexpected delays too. My husband seasoned it, by saying, you are right my son. with a good sleep, we could have done that. Both started staring at my face with laughter. I have shared my memory and sure you will end up with a sparkling smile too.

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