Always try to FIX rather than replace

One of the great things about India is that there people who can repair almost anything.  The difficult part is finding them.

To fix my coffee maker (the heating element died), water cooler (cooling element died), & toaster (stopped toasting):
Star Techno Services
5-4-225, Meher Arcade
Moazamjahi Market
Abids Road, HYD
9299407754
email: startechnoservice@yahoo.com

To fix Luggage: Zippers, replace zipper pulls, sew up tears, etc:
Balaji Bag Center
Hi-Tech Main Road
Madhapur
Between Tata DoCoMo shop and Asian Paints  (on the left heading toward Jubilee Hills)

UPS Battery needs replacing?
Harsha Computers
1-7-164/2, Ground Floor, Sainagar,
Ayyappa Society,
9553303910
Madhapur

Need Hair Products, Accessories, Scissors, Trimmers?

I found the place to go!  In Secunderabad right by General Bazar, is a semi-circular parking area by the Gandhi Statue Square.  It is right next to Bata shoes.  This place has hair cutting scissors including thinning scissors, all kinds of brushes, beard trimmers, curling irons, hair gel, spray, shampoo, clips, barrettes (aka hair pins), cosmetics and upstairs they have bras and underwear.  It is quite the shop!

Kathiawar Stores
Gandhi Statue Square
MG Road
Secunderabad
2784-1799

or another location:
Main Road
Abids
Hyderabad
2457-8172

Wine? [Whine...]

Question:  is it easy to find decent bottles of red wine in Hyderabad for reasonable prices?

Um...quick answer, is no. and No.   Hypercity sells wine, beer and some alcohol.  Their wine selection has improved, but its not great.  The best Indian wine you can find is the Sula Brut sparkling wine.  It's not amazing, but it's the best available.

The best place to buy wine or alcohol:  Duty Free shops.  Dubai is especially good.  Unfortunately we don't have many other options.  :(

Grumbles and Grudges: Hypercity is at it again!

Hypercity may find itself permanently in the Grumbles and Grudges place of dishonor.  Today while shopping there I had 3 yes 3 people approach me to ask if I had a Hypercity card.  Yes, I have that useless piece of plastic clogging up my wallet.  When I got to the checkouts (at 12:20pm on a Thursday), there were only 2 cash registers open and each had lines 6+ people deep.   I am strongly opposed to waiting in lines, so I left my cart and headed over to the Customer Service to demand ask that they open up more registers because this (wave of hand) "is unacceptable".  Their reply "5 minutes, Madame, we will find the manager."   Long story short...25 minutes later I was in my car.  They opened up one more register while I was nearly at the front of my line (watching in silent disbelief at the absurd purchase of 15+ bottles of Thums Up, 15+ bottles of Coke, and countless individual chocolate bars and candies, only then to watch the guy pay with food vouchers).

Dear Hypercity, too little too late.  You are back at the top of the Grumbles and Grudges list. 

Escape Route

Sometimes I find myself in a shop with overly enthusiastic salespeople, who eagerly await my decision to spend money, when all I want to do is LEAVE.  How to make a speedy and graceful exit?  Easy!  I just have to use the magic words.   What could these magic words possibly be that will save face and be fully understood and accepted by all salespeople?  Brace yourselves.  The magic words are:  "I need to check with my husband."  Would Gloria Steinham scowl at those words?  Yup.  Do they always work?  Oh yeah!  :)

New Year, New Shop to try: Readers

A friend told me about a new stationery store in Gachibowli and I had to try it out.  It's called Readers, has a big red sign and is located on the left as you are approaching the ORR (Outer Ring Road) from Kondapur.  Wow.  A proper office supply store...HERE!  Amazing.  It was clean, with lots of stock:  Notebooks, pens, pencils, binders, dry erase boards, desk organizers, staplers, hole punches, clips, post-its, poster board, and more.  They also sell printer cartridges and do copy and printing services.  To top it off, they even have a website:  http://readers.in  It was like a Staples or an Office Depot here in Hyderabad.

Happy New Year indeed.

Readers Gachibowli Store:
Flat #202, Plot #59 & 60
Gachibowli 'X' Roads, Near ORR
Hyderabad, 500032
Tel: 040 2300 0450  or 98484 22282
Fax: 040-2755 6368

Grumbles and Grudges

I have decided to add a new feature to my blog: The Complaints Department, now named Grumbles and Grudges.  Grumbles are things that I need to complain about, and Grudges are for outright anger and punishment infliction.

This week Grumble is Hypercity.  It is very annoying when the largest grocery store in the city does not have the simple things I want.  Today they didn't have my Danon Vanilla Yogurt.  There was a nice empty space where they should have been...and that empty space laughed a sinister laugh at me (Heh heh heh...now you have to go to another grocery store instead of going home!  Heh Heh Heh!).  The second thing I wanted that they didn't have was decent produce.  The cucumbers were soft and mushy, and the green chili peppers were just floppy.  I didn't even look at the fresh coriander (aka cilantro) which is usually laughable: more like a bunch of flowers that actual coriander leaves.


This week's Grudge goes to Quiznos.  We went there on Sunday for a quick, non-Indian lunch.  We ordered 3 chicken subs for the 4 of us.  While the girls and I were in the bathroom washing our hands, Mr. TEHG (This Expat's Hyderabad Guide), bit into his, swallowed, then looked at the inside of his sandwich only to realize that the chicken was pink.  BLECH.  He sent his back.  I looked at our subs, and sent them back too.  3.5 hours later, Mr. TEHG, was struck with food poisoning.  Quiznos has definitely earned it's spot in the Grudge corner.