‘I was gunning for a chance to explore people and places. And Hyd seemed like the best choice’

Anwesha.Paul@timesgroup.com
Having lived all her life in Syria, Abeer Khatoon had always wanted to travel to different parts of the world. When she got the chance to apply for higher education abroad, she chose Hyderabad as her destination. The 25-year-old student of Linguistics at University of Hyderabad says her year-long stay in the City of Pearls has been mesmerising.“India is a melting pot of cultures.
People from all over the world have found home in India and that is what makes it such a hotspot to study diverse cultures. Having lived all my life in Syria, I was gunning for a chance to explore people and the various ways they live their lives. And Hyderabad seemed like the best choice,” shares Abeer.
The second-year Master’s student admits that it wasn’t easy to settle in a strange land, thousands of miles away from home. “The cultural pracitises, traditions, customs, food — everything was unfamiliar in the beginning,” she says.
But as Abeer settled in, she started exploring the city and says she’s fallen in love with it. “I visited Old City but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had someone with me to explain the significance of various Hyderabadi things. I fell in love with Salarjung Museum. I spent a whole day there but I am not even close to covering all the artifacts on display.
I definitely want to go there again,” she says.
Abeer has just one semester left in her course, but says her time in India is far from done. “I want to study further here in India. I will have a lot of time to explore the places in this country. I am used to the ways of this country now. But I still can’t eat with my fingers. That is something I am working on,” she adds.