oh yest i went shopping with my mum and another aunty. twas really good- first we did touristy things like we went to the musuem (which was quite nice though in my mind i had all these suggestions as to how to improve it. lol) and then we went to char minar. which is this old building thingy that has 4 minarets (char means 4). yeah hyderabad used to be conquered by mughals so alot of islamic and persian influence in the architecure. tis quite cool. shopping was fantastic cause we went to get famous hyderabad pearls. and you sit at the counter and they show you different types of pearls and stuff and you try em on and feel like a princess. *aaaw* hahah. so anyway my mum got a pearl necklace and earrings set and i got a ring! needless to say, it is THE HOT!

apart from that, am leaving hyderabad today evening. indian trains here i come. lizzy asked me if they really look like they do in the amazing race, and yes they do. its quite dirty but surprisingly you get used to it... and even comfortable. lol. and there's this thing i call the train smell. it stays on you after you get off the train till you have a nice hot shower.

one last thing- bangalore's pollution and traffic is TERRIBLE. hyderabad is slightly better but still bad. gosh, the glass-domed singapore with its annual visit of haze is nothing to this. and i must have got used to that lack of pollution, cause travelling in bangalore is quite sucky. cant wait to come back and breathe fresher air. haha

we got a shepherd on the road to stop for us and pose, all of the shepherds were carrying the tiniest, cutest little lambs. it reminded me of that verse, john 10: 11 where jesus says "i am the good shepherd. the shepherd lays down his life for his sheep". wow.

this was on the way to my dad's village, where he grew up. sometimes i wish that he would tell me more stories bout village life, where everything was so raw and real and alien. the realisation hit me when the shepherd posed awkwardly, stiffly as we casually captured something to take home and show the people. this is what india is like. when actually, this photo may have been one of few that this shepherd would ever have taken. and these villages are dying away as india's globalisation has reaped as many sorrows as it has joys.

yes, being here now as a stranger and yet calling it home. its not an anachronism, its something else i cant place. i've probably experienced some of my most awkward moments in the past few weeks. leaving is certainly not all its cut out to be... but coming back can sometimes be just as strange.