Globalization at it's best: Karaoke in a British Style Pub in India

Okay so Thursday night was my first venture into Hyderabad's night life and it was a blast.

Scott and I were going to do an Italian dinner but were having some difficulty finding the location and calling a cab. While trying to do both of these we ran into some other students who were heading in for some Karaoke and I suggested to Scott a tag along and we agreed to crash the party.

8 of us piled in clown-car style into a taxi van and headed in to the city. The traffic is actually WORSE at night than during the day so it took a long time to get there. As apparently the norm here we paid the cabby to wait for us THE ENTIRE TIME WE WERE IN THE BAR to then drive us home or the next location. It still worked out to something like $5 each. God I love India.

Anyways the bar itself was a pretty interesting, it was called 10 Downing Street and looked like a British Pub, only more loungey with a slightly 70s feel. Not as much of a tourist trap than I thought it would be, probably partly attributable to the fact that it is pretty impossible to find. We order a few pitchers of Kingfishers and were off to the races. The group was an interesting mix of people: 2 Dutch, 2 Canadian, 4 Indians, 1 American and a Taiwanese. The food was fun-house miror American as well as Indian. The 'American Style' fried chicken was unlike any style I have seen - thinly sliced and breaded with a hot pickle sauce on the side - tasty as hell but too small a portion.

Karaoke was a blast - I totally sold up Scotty as a wringer and he he came through on his performance of I think Matchbox 20 or Rob Thomas. My sad contribution was a duet with a nice girl name Teena singing Annie's Song by John Denver. The DJ mercifully turned our mics down and pumped the supporting vocals. :)

Near the end of the night we did a big group sing of "Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams and I had one of those where the f--- am I moments?

Singing Karaoke of a Canadian Song in a British-Style Pub in the south of India.

Welcome to the future.