D Day + 1, Friday, 4th May, Byraju Foundation.

Wow. I’m really impressed. This is where the real action is. The things they do here really help the people. Water purification, women’s empowerment, agricultural practices, and many others. This is CSR at its best, a far cry from what you read in the papers. And Byraju is Indian, not some international or religious one. Which brings about the thought. What has Singapore’s rich done for the poor?

Here in Byraju they adopt villages. However, the villages must approach them 1st, Raison d’tre is that if they do not take ownership of the programs, they would not change. Costs are split 50-50. Give a man a fish, he survives a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you set him for life. A model for adoption in Singapore?

We went to Secunderabad (Hyderabad is actually twin cities of Secunderabad and Hyderabad) for dinner. The choice was Paradise-Persis restaurant, one of the 2 recommended restaurants in Secunderabad. It was a savoury delight, I cannot imagine food so tasty and rich in flavours. I loved it (that coming from someone who doesn’t like Indian food). We shared 3 appetizers and a main course each, and it was worth every rupee. Left a huge tip in the end, and it worked out to $13+ each.

Embarassment #1, the latrine at Paradise was so high I had to tiptoe to pee. And because it wasn't stable tiptoeing, I had to lean against the side to gain stability.

On our way back, we picked out our local call cards. And in true Indian custom, the shopkeeper was really laid back (read slow) in processing them. As a result, we fell late. Well that wasn’t much of a problem. If India is what we have heard and experienced so far, they wouldn’t be on time. However, the auto rickshaw driverscouldn’t speak English, and none of us could speak Hindi or the local language Telugu. We ended up brisk walking to our pick up location, and to our horror, we missed the bus.

Oh what the heck. Let’s go for a drink. I’ve asked some of the Satyam people on our way out where the nice pubs were. We took another auto to Lifestyle, where the best pub, Sparks, was. Entry was prohibited though, some of us were in slippers and berms. In disappointment, we called for a cab. Same problem. Operator doesn’t speak English, and we needed to ask a local to help us convey our address.

Our cab (a van in fact) driver couldn’t speak much English, and we couldn’t speak any Telugu, but he seemed rather sure of were Satyam was. (Satyam technological Centre was where we were bunking, Byraju is its CSR component). Kan cheong is an understatement of what some people in our group were. The possibility of our body parts being sold to locals at dirt cheap rates made someone so paranoid (Tim).

“Stop the cab! Make him take us back to the airport for an English speaking cab driver! The signboard says Medak (80km). No way its so far!” Relax Tim, where we are is on the way to Medak, we ain’t going to Medak. It didn’t help that the roads were pitch black, and we couldn’t recognize the buildings. I saw a sign “Classic Family Dhaba’. “Tim we are on the right track, I remember this signboard.” “No way! Take us back to the airport! What? We’re here.”

You could imagine the relief on all their faces when they realized we have arrived at STC.