HYDERABAD

Old World Charm

The city of nizams Hyderabad still offers a taste of history, architecture & biryani

Prerna Katiyar

OH, YOU can check out the Central Mall and then the City Centre Mall. There are at least 50 malls in Hyderabad, mind you, said a friend excitedly who has been living in the city since a couple of years. Probably she forgot that we were in the city of nizams from Delhi which has its own share of malls and that we were there to get a taste of the real flavour of Hyderabads history , architecture and biryani!
So after having the staple idly-sambhar breakfast at a nearby joint, we thought of checking out the Hussain Sagar Lake that was not very far from where we were staying. A sizable part of Hyderabad is as if weaved around this lake, which also bridges the culturally different Hyderabad and Secundarabad. The piece de resistance of Hussain Sagar is the 18-m high Gautam Buddha monolith that stands in the middle of the lake. Birla Temple, not very far from the lake and a must-see in our itinerary, would surely excite travelers from the north. The main deity in the temple is Lord Venkatesh and the beauty of the premise, as is the case with all Birla temples, spreads beyond the main mandap to the lawns and the lanes.
Keeping ourselves hydrated with regular watermelon slices and nariyal pani, we headed for the Paradise. Whats that Its one of the most popular food joints and the Biryani from this place is highly recommended. And with salan and raita, its a complete meal. Your stomach may be giving you the warning signals but yeh dil maange moreis how you feel after having those delicious biryanis. The take-away section alone is as big as any decent restaurant at other places.
Then we thought of checking out the hi-tech city of Hyderabad. Realizing very soon that we were not there to count the number of stories in those similar-looking buildings, we made a cut to Ista for lunch, a hillock-cut hotel in the hitech city itself. I was already feeling deprived of one of my basic rights shopping. And so our next stop was the pearl market another main attraction of the city. One can find the pearls from as low as 50 bucks to as high as a few grands to be sure of whether its the real one is another thing!
It was evening time already and as we had planned, we headed for the famous Golkunda Fort. Carved out of the granite rocks, its like a date with the lives of the nizams and their queens. Taking the walk uphill, one can get an idea of the lavish lifestyles these people had. From palki walks to daily ablution in rose water, the nizams surely knew how to live life king size! An interesting feature about this fort is the onehour sound and light show that highlights the lives of the nizams in the voice of Big B. Oh, and the guide also showed us how the sounds of hands clapped at the entry gate can be heard quite clearly at the top of the hill, which is more than a kilometer away.
Finally, it was time for a date with the iconic Charminar which has almost become synonymous with the city. It was constructed in 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutab Shah to mark the end of plague in the city. So that was quite some old world charm. And for the citys malls, thats for some other trip.

NAVI GATO R



BY AIR:

NT Rama Rao Domestic Terminal is at Begumpet

BY TRAIN:

There are two railway stations Nampally and Kacheguda

BY ROAD:

Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corp has a well laid out system of roadways

PACKAGES:

Around Rs 6,205/night at Ista