Hyderabad weekend

Last weekend was fun. I was in Hyderabad with family for a couple of days. One natural thing for a Bangalorean visiting Hyderabad is to start comparing the two cities. Especially after We lost to their team in the IPL finals one would by any means compare and like to see his city as the better one.

We landed in Hyderabad on saturday morning in Shamshabad airport. It seamed pretty much like the International airport in Bangalore. Many say its the best in India but I din't see anything special thats not there in Bangalore international airport. We rented a ford fiesta in the airport and drove it to Begumpet. I remember the name because that was where old Hyderabad airport stood. It was a stop over point for the flight I used to take from Kolkata to Bangalore. The drive was really good. The roads are where Hyderabad scores points over Bangalore anyday. There are flyovers all over the city and long stretches without any signal. The drive was fun. But the flipside is lawlessness. Nobody cares about the trafic laws. Everybody overtakes from the wrong side and breaks the signal, where there is one.

Our stay was in Green park. The rooms were pretty good but the stay was a touch expensive. I had lunch with dad and his friend in a place called Ohri's. Food is pretty good but I dont think thats typical Hyderabadi food. Its something that could be found anywhere. It was good though.

I met Naseem in the evening. I met him after 2 years. I went out with him all over hyderabad on his bike while my parents went around the city in the car we rented. It is a very interesting city. Especially Charminar looks awesome. The architecture of that time looks much better than the modern constructions around there. That place has many ruins of that era. I could not dig deeper as I dint have much time. But I must say you could see yesterday, today and tomorrow everywhere you saw. It is a beautiful mix of traditional and modern. For dinner I had my favourite snack, shawarma. Naseem took me to the best shawarma joint in Nampally. It was different and was pretty authentic in taste. After a good time in the old city we rode back to the hotel before I hit bed.

Next day was a pretty lazy one. We were there to attend a gettogether and the whole day pretty much lazy and just checking the area around Begumpet and Banjara hills. Along with my sister, I checked out the malls and the shopping places around that place. It is pretty much the same like Bangalore or any other Indian city for that matter. Evening was in the family friends place where we were invited. It was a formal gettogether. I met some new people and had a good taste of Hyderabadi hospitality.

After getting back to the hotel room, I decided the trip is incomplete without the Biriyani from Paradise. I drove to Paradise and got it packed especially for Kulsum since she was waiting for it back in Bangalore. The biriyani was packed and kept in the fridge. Next morning we found that the fridge got heated rather than the biriyani getting cold. We flew back to Bangalore after returning the car we rented.

It was a short but a good trip. Hoping to go there again sooner than later. For now its back to work