Goodbye, GreenMango

Today was my last day at GreenMango and this is my last night in Hyderabad. It’s been an amazing experience and the staff of GreenMango has been absolutely awesome. I took a lot of pictures with people of the past few days, which will help me to remember them, but to be honest I could never forget this experience. Sharing food at lunchtime; taking timelapse videos that catch coworkers skipping English class; learning that Praveena is actually quite a tomboy, Neha quite the rebel, and Uma quite the joker; practicing my poor Telugu; making plans for the trick chair with Khadeer; seeing all the ladies top the sales performance; reaching 15,000 forms; coffee 5 times a day from Lakshmi; 2nd breakfast; Hyderabad 10K; deciding whether my toy auto driver is drunk or just on bad roads; everything.  Everyone wants me to come back to go to the Hyderabad 10K next November. We’ll see…..

My Muslim Holiday

Yesterday I celebrated Eid (2nd Eid, really, but I’m not going to pretend like I understand the Muslim festival calendar) with my friend Neha and her family.  It was not a very big affair, but I did have biryani and a lot of sweets.  We also went to Golconda Fort, a famous tourist spot in our town of Hyderabad, because Neha lives right next to it.  It was once the domain of some king or prince and now is a big, cool area to take a break from the city and surround yourself with space and green.  Other than repeatedly being asked if people can take pictures with me, it was a nice afternoon outing.  When we returned to Neha’s, her sisters did Mehendi (henna) on my hands as a part of the celebration.  Neha has completed college and works at GreenMango with me.  Her sisters (who look like twins but are not) are pursuing engineering and biology degrees.  Despite the fact that their father passed on (making Neha the sole income-earner at 20 years old), their mother insists the girls keep going to school.  Neha’s mom is my hero for the week.