atulya bharat !!

I was in Hyderabad for a couple of days, the city always was special to me coz of the world famous hyderabadi biryani and their dialect..whenever I visit this city I remember Mehmood doing his famous number “ Hum kaale hain tou kya hua dil walein hain”, yahaan ko aaaana, nakou nakou, the twang and tilt added to hindi makes it real music to my ear...

like most cities in india, hyderabad too has two parts to the city, the new part which is the silicon valley with its scintillating high rises which bear name tags of world famous software giants and of course home grown ones too, mega malls that put bombay malls to shame, spirally flyovers snaking the entire new city,all types of cars yet good part is honking is pretty less,and uber eat outs and hangout joints, not many pubs though like bangalore but all in all a city that is all out to set the ball rock and rolling.. you got the flow am sure..

and then there is this old city, with the pride of hyderabad, charminar,despite of its fading beauty.. crying out for restoration still very elegant and still brings out an awe from you. The innumerable pearl showrooms each boasting of authentic hyderabadi pearls, mogari stores filled with mogaris of various color, designs, shapes and sizes that ensures you do give them a second look, the houses remind you of bygone era, roads like earthworms who are starved, shanties converted to shops selling cheap wares.. yes it does remind you of India the westerners love to take pictures of, inspires them to make movies on.. I could go on and on.. basically to depict a jaundiced view of India to the world...

But then our atulya bharat is a land of contradiction, we have the uber rich and the sinfully poor living foots step counts off each other, the ultra modern culture and staunch conventional traditions coexisting, we may support different ipl teams today but are bound together by our passion for cricket, we follow different customs but our devotion to them is common, we dress differently but share the same pride, we have totally different eating habits, but our passion for our food is common, we truly set a best example of unity in diversity, we are united in our passion. One such passion that binds India is that for food.

Like most indian I am a foodie to the core so the most important thing on my business agenda to any city is to dig in (deep) to its local delicacies. What I saw this time left me feeling amused and happy ..

In new city, Paradise is the most famous dig for Hyderabadi biryani, the locals would snub this and say that the authentic one is the one in old city at a joint called shadab.. as the paradise one has a parsi mix to it.. honestly I loved both.. but then am not a conossier. but what I found common in both places is their customer management skills. Both places are very crowded during lunch and dinner time and by that I mean from 12 noon – 4 pm and 8 pm -12:30 pm, yes thats how much we love our food.. In paradise they waiter uses s/w on mobile to place order and the waiting time for whatever you order is not more than 5 - 7 minutes, I thought its technology.. but I was amazed to find the same thing in shadab.. though it was minus the mobile management, man management was fantastic. To save time, these places dont clean the tables but just remove the table cloth, the orchestrated move by the waiters is fantastic, one would take the order, second person would get in the drink part of the order, the 1st person would deliver and serve the food, half way through he would find out if you needed anything else. All to ensure that not only do you enjoy a sumptuous meal without having to wait much for your next course but also to ensure a quick turnover. No wonder these places are such a hit !! they would put a Mc D to shame !!

the point I am trying to make is these two places are poles apart in their ambiance, management styles but are bound together in their to passion to serve yummy biryanis to hoards awaiting them with the same gusto and smile.. which for years thrills all we biryani lovers..

and this happens only in India..(singing and doing the jig !!) my land where contradictions co exist in harmony !!

some interesting facts bout hyderabad:
in hussain sagar there is a 80 feet statue of buddha in the middle of the lake, while placing the statue, it fell and got lost in the sea and it took an year to find it .. minus a ear, so they had to remake the ear.

Lots of accident would take place on the road around the hussain sagar area, as bikers would talk on their mobiles while driving (dunno why either hussain sagar or buddha inspired them to talk !!!) so the govt has banned mobile network for the entire stretch of it.. phew.. weird ...

the poshest locations are jubilee hills and banjara hills which dont even qualify to be called hillocks .. but I cant complain being from bombay (yes the land of kalaghoda, Fort etc)