Day 16: Hyderabad

Our first daylight view of Hyderabad from the second floor of our guest house.

We piled into our bus for a morning meeting with with Divis Pharmaceuticals.


Our eager tour gide made sure we didn't miss any of Hyderabad's landmarks and regaled us with tales about chit funds and eunuchs.

We posed with Dr. Divi, whose company produces the active ingredients for many drugs that are household names.
The eye-catching facade of one of Lokesh's brand new retail stores.
We were dumbfounded by all the strange-looking Indian vegetables. Whatever they are, we'd bet they're spicy.

Good, better, best. When it comes to lentils, versioning is key. Umed tries to decide which one is the better value.

Lunch in the opulence of the five-star hotel inside Ramoji Film City, which is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest film studio complex in the world.

We toured some of the many movie sets scattered around Ramoji Film City, where more than 500 movies have been filmed.
Umed and Ian admired the stone carving's hard abs.

Jimmy, Umed, and Ed interacted with modern art.

Andrew bravely tried to rescue Lassie from the jaws of the Cobra, which had managed to escape from the snake charmer. Lokesh chivalrously steered Sarah away from a spider's web.

The scariest part of the entire haunted house was learning how being trapped in a disco ball would feel--but Nell kind of liked it.
Whit, Jimmy, and Andrew enjoyed listening to soft-jazz renditions of classic Disney songs while we waited to meet with Mr. Rao.
Ian, Joia, and Dafina marveled at the tremendous prospects for India's TV and newspaper industries.
We posed with Mr. Rao after our meeting. He explained that resisting government intervention into newspaper and television reporting is one of his company's key challenges.

That night Lokesh and his parents welcomed us into their lovely home for dinner.

We all were particularly impressed by Lokesh's shower, which, apparently, makes one feel like singing in the rain. Powered by Gopi! The man behind it all finally had a chance to put faces to names.

We asked Mr. Naidu many questions about the future of India.
The whole gang with Lokesh's father and mother.

We were amazed and delighted to receive beautiful gifts. No way Allison was going to trade hers for anything.