The End of an Era

January, 2005 – A very busy month to start a year. This month also brought to an end an era, an era matched only by the grandeur of the Golden Era of the Guptas, an era matched only by the architecture marvels of the Vijayanagar empire, an era matched only by the tranquility that you get in the Silent Valley reserves of Kerala. That’s enough for “matching” !:) The era that came to an end is the era of Hydehouse. Those who do not know what hydehouse is don’t deserve to live. For those who still prefer to live on and are still ignorant, Hydehouse is more than just a house. It is more like a family, a treasure, and also a junk! (Sometimes junk is what you would like to be in!)

In August 1999, immediately after passing out from college and landing in Hyderabad, Hydehouse was formed by 4 people – Inigo, Kishore, Moinu and Sathish (Me …!). After a pro-longed search of 2 days, and after being shun away from various apartments for being a bachelor (for many bachelorhood is still a strict “no-no” as far as renting house is concerned), we finally landed in Myneni Apartments. It was a penthouse (no way linked to the popular magazine by the same name) and we landed there just after summer. The entire house was surrounded by windows and we had ample light for free!! Soon we were joined by other members of the family viz., Bondi (Saravana), Paaps (Ravi) and Bals (balamurugan). The house was a huge one and could easily accommodate 7 people. With so many people around weekends used to be reserved for washing clothes and sight seeing. The saga at Myneni did not last long. The 1200 sq. ft of two bedroom flat that we had rented for Rs. 3000 had to be returned in less than 6 months (no no .. we did not do anything. It was because the owners wanted to shift to this house! ).

The next house that we found in Yellareddyguda was a disaster! Though the house was one of the best I have ever seen, the neighbour had a not so beautiful daughter whom, I guess, they never trusted. Hence they did not want bachelors staying anywhere near their house. The neighbours were just providing a wrong solution to their problem. Hopefully the daughter has not eloped with someone else. It was more painful because we were literally kicked out in the middle of shifting and the owner of our house did not have the necessary guts to raise his voice. Well everything happens for our good, or so goes the saying. We soon landed in Vijaya Towers in Ameerpet, behind Chermas (October 1999)

The house was a really good one and we got it for pretty cheap rate of Rs. 4000. It was a ground floor flat and the owner was more than pleased to hand it over to us. Later we realized that the earlier tenants in the house were into an occupation that is only legalized in The Netherlands and another country in the world. However, that just meant lower rent for us. We had nothing to do with reputation of the earlier tenants. During the 1 year we stayed in that flat, we were not exposed to the summer heat as the temperature inside the house was always very less than the external temperature. Our family expanded with Kands (Kandaswamy) joining us. We were 8 in number. The hall rivaled the best cricket pitches in the world and the kitchen was more like a school where talents were being groomed and experimented with.

Immediately after the summer of 2001, we moved to Rukmini enclave for a rent of Rs. 6500. This house was again in the top floor and for 2 years we had to tolerate the heat of Hyderabad summer. During this period, Bals and Kands left the family for better opportunities. We were joined by Meens (Meenakshi) who was more famous for his exploits with cooking (esp. with potatoes). During this period, paaps and meens left hydehouse to Chennai and Bangalore respectively and we were joined by Aavi (Saravana).

Finally during the November of 2002, we moved to Zamarud Enclave. Things had changed rapidly. There was a need for more space and we opted for a spacious 3 bedroom flat. Zamarud was witness to lot of activity. There was attrition at regular intervals. First it was Moinu who left to Bangalore followed by Kishore who moved to a different house in Hyderabad. After some time, Swaroop joined us but we soon saw Aavi moving out to Chennai. Even though there were 4 members, it was more of a floating population. At any given time it was hard to find more than 2 members in the house. Finally it was time for things to move on. With Inigo getting married in January and bondi getting married in February, the time had come to move beyond hydehouse.

In January 2005, I decided to move alone to Madhapur. And I am currently sitting alone in my house typing this blog at 12:45 am!! Anyhow, it was an era that I was part of and I need to blog this so that I don’t miss the details of the era gone by.