While New Delhi gets ready to receive President Obama, it takes me back 15 years… to when we lived in Hyderabad.
March 24, 2000 was a big day in Hyderabad. Bill Clinton was visiting the city, the first time ever that an American President was visiting a city in South India.
Many of the roads were going to be blocked so I had taken the day off from work. The President’s convoy was scheduled to pass by one of the main circles on Banjara Hills Road No.1 enroute to Hi-tech City. That this was very close to where we lived was an incentive to catch a glimpse of the world’s most powerful man. So I went, Canon camera in hand. Film camera, and no zoom to get close ups. I took position where I thought I would get a good view, electricity and telephone poles not withstanding. The six pictures I took turned out well, and I swore I caught a glimpse of a fair smiling face and a fair hand waving as the cars sped by.
After moving from Hyderabad in Aug 2001, I haven’t had a chance to revisit the city. I hear it is much changed and that Road No.1 is unrecognisable from these pics of March 2000.
arathimy 