Hyderabad: Day 1

The ten-hour sleeper train from Aurangabad to Hyderabad was a bad idea. (I know, I know. Big surprise.) But not for the reasons one would expect.
The cot was comfortable (short, but one can't blame the Lilliputians) and the train was quiet and relatively smooth. The problem was the air conditioner.
In India, as I'm sure is the case in other developing countries, air conditioning is as much a comfort as it is a sign of luxury. So, it's often blasted (the less you can feel your extremities, the more luxurious you are). The logic of blasting the air conditioning when the "winter" has driven every local to wear hats and/or ski masks (seriously) is beyond me, but India isn't always a logical place. Another example of the country's impeccable logic: the museum we visited today (home to 1 million wide-ranging objects previously under the ownership of a former local sovereign ruler) banned cameras but had its own food court and snack bars throughout.
Also, the pillows and sheets provided by on the train were definitely not clean, but that comes with the territory. One thing I really like about the trains (normal and sleeper ones) is that each train has a handful of guys who patrol the cars (in the morning on sleeper cars) offering hot chai, coffee and snacks. There's nothing better than waking up to hot chai after a night of being frozen stiff and pissed off by the guy with the "Hari Ram, Hari Ram, Hari Krishna, Hari Ram" sing-song cell ring.
Anyway, after we arrived and went to our hotel, we visited the aforementioned museum, which is home to the largest one-man collection of antiques in the world. (If you believe Wikipedia. And I know you do.) The items in the collection ranged from tea sets from around the world to dozens of clocks to impressionist paintings and renaissance-style sculptures of ancient Roman gods. It's amazing that any one person could own so much stuff.
We also visited Chowmahalla Palace, where the line of Nazims (the local sovereign leaders) lived until India gained its independence in the mid-1900's. I can't post the photos now, but they had a room with 19 chandeliers and owned a line of cars including an early-1900's Rolls Royce. Extravagant.
The last place we visited was Charminar Bazaar, a 400-year-old masjid around which a huge shopping area has sprouted. Here are some photos (click the above link to see the masjid itself):




I'm being kicked out of this Internet Cafe, so that's it for now.. Tomorrow, we visit Ramoji Film City, the world's largest film studio complex (where a bunch of movies are made in Hindi and some local dialects).
To my Bates friends: I saw some monkeys yesterday. I did not touch them.
To everyone: I'm introducing two recurring counters to this blog.
Times I've been compared to Abhishek Bachan: 2. (I really don't see it.)
Days in India without having yet found myself or my spirituality: 5.