My Journey Around Hyderabad
- rohiteshgupta
- Aug 29, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 9, 2023
I struggled to write this piece as I had already written in bits and pieces how I ended up spending my last 15 years around Hyderabad. As Steve Jobs said,” most people, in their lifetime, spend a chunk of their time working”. So that’s about it!
The only city, other than Omaha, where I have had my jobs, whether industrial or academic, is Hyderabad. I moved to Hyderabad in 2008 to work for a big Indian pharma company with a specialty in biology. I have written about my industrial experience, in some depth, in one of my other blogs. It was a time when I learned to live independently, manage finances, make friends, enjoy time, think about my future, etc. We initially stayed in Amerpeet near our company’s bus stop. During the rainy season, the place would be flooded with muddy water. It was difficult to cook food as we were new here, so ate spicy food from an Andhra mess nearby. Since I didn’t follow local news, so can’t comment on how things changed after the Telangana formation, but in those days Andhra was united.
Later, I moved to another locality named Malaysian Township, where most of the employees from my business unit stayed. With friends, I explored many nooks and corners of the city including the very famous Ramoji Film City. I also taught children every weekend at an NGO named HOPE foundation in the old city.
As my time in my company progressed, I met my better half there. Initially, there were some apprehensions that it would go well between us but we tagged along. Soon after we got to know each other, I got an admission from SUNY, Buffalo, New York and so we had a tough time. I had another option to join a startup in which my better half was working, but I decided to pursue research in the USA.
In Aug 2010, I flew to Buffalo, NY, and kept in touch. While my research was going on in Buffalo, I maintained a long-distance relationship with her from 2010 to 2014. It’s not as easy as it sounds as the presence of the right people around you adds in positive energy! However, whenever I visited my parents in India, mostly once a year, I would pay a visit to her in Delhi. Soon her startup moved to Hyderabad because of the many biopharma/pharma here. In 2014, she travelled to the US for a couple of months to meet me after our marriage date was decided later that year.
Later in 2014 I returned to India and got married in Dec. Then I spent few days in Hyderabad before returning to Buffalo. I completed my PhD while my better half was here and then returned in Sep’15. Many might say that I did wrong in staying in long distance relationship and later leaving my better half here, but then that’s what happened and we are doing well at current!
From late 2015 to the first quarter of 2018, I stayed here and then went for a postdoc job in Omaha, and that too alone since my better half was working in her own startup. It was a difficult phase of my life, but I guess it was all decided in my fate and we were bound to go through this phase. I spent about 2 years in Omaha and in between my better half visited me twice there.
Our baby boy was born in 2019 and that was also a stressful period for a mother like her (as for any mother!). But, with family members, we managed, or rather she managed for the first few months (the first few months are the most challenging ones!) and I returned here again in Dec’19 keeping my contract (in absentia) till Jan’20. So, we have been in Hyderabad since then and together we have celebrated our son’s every birthday with pomp and show.
May we/you live long to see the ever-changing India and the World around us, for the good!
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