AN ODE TO THE CITY OF PEARLS

I sit with a cup of tea and a mildly melancholic mood on the eve of my last day in this city. The bags are packed, the dues are settled and the taxi has been booked. I have been thinking of writing a post about my one year stay in Hyderabad for some time and I guess now would be a good time to finally complete it.

After almost 2 years in a village with a factory in Gujarat, I remember I was super excited to stay in a proper city for a while. I needed some time to get back into the studies groove after the RIL work life. I guess there is no place for an educational 'vann-vaas' like a metropolitan city with arguably the most nerdy crowd.

Every single person I've met in Hyderabad has asked me 'Why here?'. And I've told every one of them, I have no clue. I guess I just wanted to get to know a new city. Also the culinary greatness of Hyderabad was something which I've always kept hearing about. Hyderabad was the seat of power of the Qutub Shahi dynasty and later the Nizams, after a brief interlude of Mughal rule. This historic significance also piqued my interest. The city of Kohinoor, The city of Lions, The city of Biriyani. Toponyms which Hyderabad has have no end. It also helped that two of my closest friends stayed in Hyderabad. 

I have to confess that despite my interest in the history of the place, I rarely visited any of the old city areas, if you exempt the ceremonial visit which everyone makes to Charminar and Salar Jung museum. However this wasn't because I was lazy but because of the amazing gang I got here. The places which we visited never really mattered as long as the whole group was there. Of course we did hit up almost all joints in and around the Hitec city area but the excursions to the old city were rare. 

Oh and if you are reading this mom and dad, I studied a lot too. Me and Teena went to almost all of the early morning classes and faraway test-centers. The 1 km walk to SV college at 5:30 in the morning became a part of my daily routine.   

I am going to list out my top ten experiences in Hyderabad. I guess this is the best way to sum up my stay here. It is an effort to limit it to ten, but well, let me give it a shot.

1. Best Biriyani : This is usually the first question people ask me when they hear I am in Hyderabad now. Personally I am more a fan of the Malabar biriyani but if you are in Hyderabad, you cannot escape the lure of the local aroma. Now there are big names weighing for the best biriyani title here. I've tasted the biriyani from most of them. From Paradise to Bawarchi. From Shadab to RR. But the best Biriyani I've had is from a little known bar/hotel in 100 feet road, Madhapur. The 'Special Hyderabadi Biriyani' in Hotel M3- Bar-B-Que is my top choice for the best Hyderabadi biriyani. Too bad that they aren't a big chain with a lot of publicity. Oh and a word of advice, nothing else in this hotel is good. But somehow their Biriyani has been spot-on every time I've tried it. 

                        

2. Best Kebab : Siddique Kebab centre. Undoubtedly. This place believes in finding something they are good at and keep repeating it forever uniformly across all of their outlets. They don't give two shits about anything else. If you want ambience/service/ veg. dishes/non-kebab/non-chicken dishes, this is NOT the place for you. But if what you are looking for is the pure joy of biting into a chicken kebab spiced and cooked to gastronomic perfection this is the go-to place.

3. Most memorable Dinner : While I've never had a bad dinner (taste-wise) in Hyderabad , this is more about how the entire evening played out. Prashant booked us all in for an evening at Taj Falaknuma, Hyderabad. For those of you who haven't heard about it, this was the place which Salman Khan booked for his sister's wedding. The place demands a minimum bill of Rs. 2500 per head, to dine over here. This also includes a tour of the palace, a small slice of the royal life. We, of course, had no clue about this monetary criteria. 

In the end it took some unbelievable convincing and dignified begging to prevent them from kicking us out. That was the day I was sure Prashant is probably going to be the best Manager ever, after his B-school battles. As for the food, it wasn't bad. But the undeniable fact is that a Rs. 1200 Veg. Korma doesn't taste all that different from a Rs. 50 Veg. Korma. 

This evening-adventure would also go down in history as the only time Uber failed to get us out of a desolate locality. We waited in the surprisingly non-royal guard room while trying to cajole multiple taxi service firms to send us some means of transportation back to civilization. Classy.

4. Biggest WTF moment : Me and Teena went in for breakfast to a Dosa place after a morning class. I can't seem to recall the place's name now but it is somewhere along the Madhapur main road. Teena told me that she could finish a Family-sized Dosa alone and of course I didn't believe her. What followed was a war where Teena took on a dosa almost as tall as her. Like any classic battle between the predator and the prey, Teena massacred that 70-centimeter-dosa, all by herself. I've never looked at her the same way from then on.

5. Best Place To Shop : Now, there are many malls in Hyderabad which are identical to any other mall in any other city in any part of the globe. But Shilparamam is something unique to Hyderabad. A government owned piece of land right in the heart of Hitec city where artisans from faraway places can come and sell their goods directly to buyers. The lack of middlemen ensures that customers get a good deal and if you can haggle, you are in for a treat. 
Shilparamam has everything from textiles and jewelry to paintings and statues. The place also has an amphitheatre which has regular dance and music shows. My parents love this place so much that at times, I've seriously doubted whether they visited Hyderabad to see me or to visit Shilparamam

6. Best Sunday Brunch : Now the competition is only between Avasa's pool side brunch and Via Milano's karaoke Italian brunch. Both serve excellent food and drinks but on account of the fun we had I would say Via-Milano. The place has the right mix of rustic and modern ambience with brilliant music, mainly because we sang most of it. Neethu's stories were, of course, the highlight of the day. Neethu, I wish I could put up a video here, but I dont think the world is ready for it yet....

7. Best Cake : Hyderabad offers you a lot of amazing pastries. While I am not much of a sweet-tooth, I've still tasted some of the best. Insanity cake from Olive Bistro, Chocolate-excess from Chocolate room, NY Cheese cake with blue berry topping from Griffin, Tiramisu from Little-Italy. But the one cake which would have a special place in my heart is the Angry birds raspberry cake we got for Aswathy's Birthday!

8. Most memorable Lunch : Just a few days ago, we decided to cook for ourselves. I think I should speak about our culinary expertise first. Teena claims she makes a lot of dishes. So she had a point to prove when she went into the kitchen to make for us , 'The Best Prawns Fry ever'. Geena has been to all the restaurants in Hyderabad. Seriously. So we hoped that she would give our preparations, the restaurant-level fineness. I think the only thing Sanjay has ever cooked is cup-noodles, that too when the water was heated by someone else. I am an armchair-expert. I've seen all the seasons of Masterchef and Hell's Kitchen. So I was all set.
Four of us made 2 dishes in 3 hours for 8 people. I would say it was moment of pride when what we amateur chefs made, turned out to be really tasty. We made Teena's roomies eat it too just to be sure that we weren't merely delusional after the long hours we spent in the kitchen.
Also hats off to our moms who make double the number of dishes in half the time on a daily basis. How you people do it, I'll never know.

9. Best Means of Transportation : Aswathy's Scooty. I cannot even begin to count the number of times this Scooty has brought me home safe and sound. In addition to this, I owe a lot to Ola and the share-auto drivers of Hyderabad. It is amazing how well connected Hyderabad is through share-autos. Although this is something not mentioned in any of the write-ups about the city. You just have to live here to get to know how invaluable the share-autos are.

10. Greatest Let-down : Ramoji Rao Film city is one of the iconic tourist spots of Hyderabad. But sadly, I really did not like it. I felt it was a lot of effort put in from our side to see relics of a bygone-era. I am sure the older generation would find the place amazing, but personally, I did not.

So there you have it, my list of highlights of my Hyderabad life. I guess most of these are personal but as I've already mentioned, it was never about the place but about the people. I usually don't mention names on public posts but I guess I've crossed that line already.

Sanjay, Neethu, Geena, Teena, Prashant, Aswathy, Sruthi, Neenu, Hendry, Saran, Siri, Vinay, Divya. I came here with the aim of studies alone. I had never thought I would meet (or in some cases, re-acquaint) with so many people who I am really going to miss. Thanks to you guys, I leave here with memories. I am not saying anything more and making this emo. Cheers to all the good days and until next time....

Veedkolu Hyderabad!