1.75 kg biryani in 10 minutes!
Staff Reporter, The Hindu
23 musclemen from 16 States take part in ‘biryani eating contest’
Hyderabad: The city of nawabs and kababs witnessed a unique event the other day. A biryani challenge to be precise. Well, biryani may be the dish to die for. But how much of it can you eat? continue reading
J.S. Ifthekhar, The Hindu,
Effort to recapture the ambience of the palace which was venue for official banquets of the Nizams
HYDERABAD: Breathtaking and awe-inspiring. That about forms a word picture of the famed Chowmahalla palace. But the renovated palace is even more enticing. With the restoration of Afzal Mahal, the grandest of the four palaces, nearing completion, Chowmahalla is all set to regain its past grandeur.
Conservation architects Rahul Mehrotra and Raja Martand Singh are doing a meticulous job to recapture the ambience of the palace which served as a venue for official banquets and receptions of the Nizams. By November-end Afzal Mahal is expected to be thrown open for visitors.See also: Chowmahalla Palace to play host to celebrity banquets
Nov 2007, 0221 hrs IST, SAPNA KAUSHIK, The Times of India NewsHYDERABAD: It is a warm, sunny afternoon as the middle-aged gentleman sips his cup of Irani chai with a calm, peaceful demeanour. Listening to Md Yavari’s conversation, one would never guess that he is a migrant from Iran. Reiterating the fact that Hyderabad is truly one of the few cities that is a real melting pot of cultures and peoples, he insists "Hyderabad is where I belong to." And other Iranians settled in the city eagerly endorse his sentiment. "I always feel I am a part of this land," Yavari smiles as he reminisces about how his family came to Hyderabad just a year after India’s independence. There has been no looking back for him ever since. continue reading
2 Nov 2007, 0000 hrs IST,TNN
It was Halloween night and folks at this nightclub got down to some real s
pooky affairs! Dead men walking, dark spirits and devils rising - the evening had an eerie aura of the other world. Everyone let their hair down and the sights, were well, hair raising, what else! Actor and model Deepika Padukone was flown down for this party and although she wasn't dressed for the occasion, she cast a spell anyway! Srikala Reddy seemed to be leading from the front, dressed in a stylised sorceress' dress. Actor Navdeep was here looking every bit a Halloween freak, while Nitin and Bharti sported scary masks through the evening. Others seen enjoying themselves were Dhisha Girglani, Priya, Meer Aga, Meera and more. OVERHEARD: "It's alright if the skeletons from the closet come out today!"
Our city has quite a presence on the web. Be it news, culture, music, or politics, there are any number of sites looking at Hyderabad from one perspective or the other. Of course, this is true of other cities across the world, as well. Hyderabad on the web is more appealing than the city in reality. Let's hope reality will catch up at some point with the picture that the eye of a camera, or the click of a mouse would reveal.
All is definitely not well with the world. Hyderabad's most prominent landmark, the four-minared architectural marvel that has defined it for more than 4 centuries, is not in great shape. While hi-tech cities in low-tech surroundings bloom, plush gated communities mushroom, skyscrapers sprout and all the cars, autos, bikes and buses of Bharat that is mahaan, converge at Punjagutta or Paradise, depending on where you are and regardless of where you wanted to go in the first place, the collective, incremental effect of idlers, lovers, tourists and vandals, not to speak of the "vagaries of nature" to use a popular cliche, is taking its toll. Of course, there is the obvious, but the unmentionable--sheer neglect by government agencies, paid to keep it alive and going. Tell them this and they'll blind you with statistics--so don't even think of getting into that!
On another note, who's pulling a fast one here--a Hyderabadi or a Bangalorean? Hard to tell, eh?
PS. info courtesy: Thadakamalla Sujatha Rao (New Zealand); and Yahoo! 360° - Pavan's Blog, "Hyderabad IT World ~ July 01, 2006"
"…….in near future
The mind itself is of the form of all"
Dasara, Dussehra a.k.a. Dusharah--The Navaratri festival is called Desara in Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, and Kali Puja in Bengal. Ramazan is the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar, and Navaratri Dasara means nine nights in the Hindu Calendar.
Hyderabad celebrates Eid ul Fitr today. There's a heavy security blanket all over the town, but the festive mood is there for all to see.Newspapers wrote about the hectic, last-minute shopping of Eid shoppers, while the Dasara festivities and celebrations have also begun. Let's hope and pray that everything passes off smoothly and those who think that a country or city can be shaken by a few blasts, taught a lesson by the togetherness and composure of the rest of us. Eid Mubarak to all our friends!
A forwarded email (by Brothers Abdul Hai Patel and Malik Khan) brought to me the following text and visuals (Author unkown)!!!
Subject: Beautiful Hyderabad Pictures
Message:
Hello Everyone,
Just wanted to share these beautiful pictures of Hyderabad with all of you.
Enjoy.
[NB. The following text that came with the pictures, is originally posted by VALLABHA in response to Alan Saracevic's article: Visions of India: Next stop Hyderabad]
Tell me how many people in INDIA know that Hyderabad has:
1) The IMAX Theatre with Worlds Largest screen and the only true 3D screen in INDIA
2) Asia 's biggest and one of the Worlds' biggest and best Convention centres 'HICC'
3) World's biggest Film Studio complex ' Ramoji Film City '
4) Country's best Animation and art work studios
5) Country's best and biggest Exhibition centre so far 'HITEX'
6) Country's biggest single real estate venture at the cost of US $2.2Billion by ICICI Ventures and Tishman of New York !
7) Hyderabad is leading in Hospital Tourism, now trying to lead also in Echo Tourism
8) Hyderabad is the best place to start any new retail business or Mall: This was from a study on how Malls are fuelling sales in India and the max amount of Sales happened in the Malls in Hyderabad despite the huge number of very big malls in Delhi and Mumbai.. Many biggest of the kind malls are being constructed here. You can also see, Reliance group, Tata's, Heritage group and many more venturing their first retail units starting from Hyderabad !
9) Hyderabad is the only place where complete restructuring is happening by even demolishing lot of buildings within the city! Delhi is the other only City, which followed this model.
10) In fact Infosys has planned its world's Largest Campus near to Shamshabad Airport in an area of 500acres of land! However its pending.. it may take of soon. Else some other campus would come up there.
11) Fab City would be the Ultimate answer for the Electronic and chip making industry from India !
12) How many know about ISB
13) IIT is being setup now in Hyderabad .
14) Birla has already setup Bits in Hyderabad
15) Country's largest number of Colleges for Engineering Medicines and largest number of Universities are in AP!
16) Just the colleges in and around Hyderabad produce much more Engineering graduates than any other city in INDIA !
17) Country's most expensive Residential Only venture has started in Hyderabad , with 250 villas where each Villa will be in 1 Acre of land and at the cost of Rs.14crores each! Why only in Hyderabad ? Because people are ready to buy and live there :-)
18) The most connected city in INDIA with highest Teledensity
.....and lot more like this!
Can you expect Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, The 2 Google Champions, CSC, GE and all these people pour huge investments and expand their campuses just based on Hype?
Hyderabad is now a tri-city: CYBERABAD-HYDERABAD-SECUNDERABAD!
You must be knowing the Fact: US has chosen Hyderabad over Bangalore for setting up its New Consulate and it is already in process! This is because there are more VISA applicants from AP hitting Chennai Consulate! For that matter, always the biggest number of Travellers to US is from AP
A visual treat ..… [info courtesy: The Great Hyderabad (Deccan - Telangana) - Andhraguyz Community] Birla temple:  Budha statue at Hussain Sagar:  Charminar:  Falaknuma palace:  Chowmahalla palace:  Khilwat: Palace  Purani haveli:  Mummy in Archeological Museum:  Ashur khana:  Durgam Cheruvu:  Golconda: Fort  High Court:  Himayat Sagar:  NTR Gardens:  Osmania Hospital:  OsmaniaUniversity:  Ramoji Film city:  Salarjung Museum: Museum  Shilpa Ramam:  Toyland:  And Finally the One and Only Hyderabadi biryani:  See also: |
Cricket fever grips Hyderabad, Indo-Asian News Service, Hyderabad, October 04, 2007
They're all over the place now. Yes, dear ole Hyderbadiz. Everywhere in the world. Across continents, countries, prairies, deserts, great lakes, green forests, islands. Everywhere. The Hyderabadi diaspora continues to expand just as the city stretches from Shamshabad to Bhongir today. A long way from where it started. But, as we here never tire of reminding the rest of the world and ourselves--once a Hyderabadi, always a Hyderabadi. So, they keep coming back to find old haunts gone, buildings pulled down and turned into malls and multiplexes, homes razed and converted into three-hundred and fifty flats on five hundred yards and being sold at 5000 a sq foot. Well, well, times-they are achanging. And if you're a Hyderabadi young and rearing to go that's what you would do too--flap your wings and get set to fly.....
The alarm bells are going off. The Deccan Chronicle reported today that Microsoft sounded it to the state government to get its act together (translated into plain words) on the security and traffic fronts. This is seen as an example of a rising sense of insecurity and unease in corporate houses on Hyderabad. The report has it that Bangalore is now the preferred destination--not that it's any better, in terms of traffic, but it's probably seen as a safer place these days.
As for us Hyderabadiz, we're back to chewing our nails and scratching our heads. And if you ask someone from the State government--he'll tell you things were never better. Sure. Speak for yourself, mate.
To end on a positive note--the bazaars are crowded, Charminar is all lit up and Haleem is giving everything else a run for its money.
Yes, the Ganesh immersion passed off peacefully and Hyderabad breathes easy again. Yesterday, people were off the streets, traffic was the thinnest ever in the whole year and the police were busy policing. But give them due credit. Our policemen did a great job--keeping a 'virtual' eye on the massive procession and monitoring it at every point. tv channels covered the procession 'live' late into the night and that was that. Finally, all's well that ends well. The T-20 victory cast its joyous shadow on the procession, according to this morning's newspapers. The processionists had an extra reason to celebrate and a good many of them celebrated the T-20 victory with gusto.
And so, after taking a day off, we get right back into our daily lives : buses, bikes, cars, autos, pan-shops, multiplexes, restaurants, wine-shops and all.....
Back then in the early 60s, there was just one (upmarket) shopping area--Abids. Secunderabad's M.G. Road was a distant cousin, less frequented by Hyderabadiz. The Old City bazaars were very much there, mainly for bangles and pearls.
A dozen double-deckers plied merrily along on a couple of routes. There was hardly any traffic worth the name--buses, bicycles, a few two-wheelers and the odd car or jeep. We didn't know the word 'pollution' existed or what it meant. In contrast, a 5 year-old will enlighten you on the causes and effects of pollution.
Back then, Osmania Hospital took care of Hyderabad's health concerns and Gandhi of Secunderabad. There was Niloufer Hospital (where I was born in the year of grace, 1957) for kids.
It was a small contented, laid-back city, with the remains of its past Nawabi era very much in place--the Bashir Bagh palace was very much there, but was gone soon! The Begumpet Palace 'Aiwaan-e-Begumpet' was intact, as were the other palaces and larger houses. The slums of the city, inevitably, were just getting established and middle-class colonies were sprouting here and there. There was nothing of the real-estate frenzy now driving Hyderabad.
In January and up until the tenth of Feb. you had the All India Industrial Exhibition, as the prime source of entertainment. The rest of the time, the movies took over. One waited with bated breath for Wednesday nights and for Binaca Geetmala on Radio Ceylon. Cinema Posters occupied the place that hoardings do, and NTR's and ANR's fan clubs tried overdo each other--in endless bouts of tit for tat each would plaster the other's idol, just before the release of a new movie with dung-cakes!
Good times they were, when one could drink Gandipet's water and importantly, it was sufficient for the city's needs. This was the time when we forgot to plan for the future and the amnesia continues after nearly half a century! Good luck!
It's turning out to be another nightmare metropolis, thanks to its most chaotic roads. Hyderabad is hardly destination tomorrow anymore. It's a get out of there today if you can sort of place.
Added to everything else, the city's under the grip of conjunctivitis right now, making life even more miserable for Hyderabadiz. And it shows no signs of abatement. The 'pink eye' is all over the place.
Equally pervasive is the presence of securitymen everywhere, because of Ramadan. The cops don't want to be caught unawares and intensive security is in place. Now you would expect citizens to be thankful to the police for this elaborate security cover. Yes, many of us cross our hearts and thank them for it. But then there are these habitual cribbers who grumble about too much 'security'. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Public places--parks, museums, malls and multiplexes aren't attracting the crowds they used to, till very recently. Let's only hope that the Ganesh immersion passes off peacefully.
That's the big question. officialdom, being officaldom will tell you that Hyderabad is the most happening city (without defining 'happening'), that it's ready to take on Singapore and Shanghai--after a peg ot two, an official might even tell you that it's already giving Shanghai a run for its money! A businessman told us an anecdote about a meeting with some officials in which some NRIs, interested in investing in a new project here, had also participated. One NRI asked this official how the traffic mess would ever get resolved, because no plan seems to be in place. He glibly replied that the ring road would soon take care of all the traffic problems and for effect, added that 'self-sufficient' satellite townships were going to come up all around soon. Now isn't that a perfectly 'Alice in Wonderland' situation!
This is much like a play that was staged at a city hotel recently where Shah Jahan calls for tenders to build the Taj, assigns the work to his Chief Engineer, who passes it on contractors with hefty cuts of the pie distributed all over the place. The Taj doesn't get built and Shah Jahan dies after an endless wait. We, Hyderabadis, are a bunch of Shah Jahans who will never see our Taj Mahals (in our case, good roads, accountable governance and a responsive administration), cynical as it may sound. As the great Meer Taqui 'Meer' said nearly 200 years ago:
jab se jahaN hai tab se Kharaabi yahi hai 'meer'
tum dekh kar zamaane ko Hairaan kya rahe
(This world has always been a rotten place ai 'meer'
why are you astonished to see it so?)
see also:
Don't read this morning's newspapers--all of them of them are full of the woes of being a HyderaBADi. Bad traffic, bad planning, bad governance and of course, bad excuses to cover them up.
Moving on to other things, the month of Ramadan will begin on Friday and for a month all roads leading to Charminar will be buzzing with activity, teeming with shoppers, mosques and shops lit up all over the old city in particular, while movement of traffic on our streets will remain as chaotic as ever, or even get a trifle more crowded at times.
Saturday's Ganesh Chaturthi is another major festival that is round the corner.
All that Hyderabadiz now hope is that the two--the ten-day festivities of Ganesh Chaturthi leading up to the 'visarjan' or immersion, and the month of praying and fasting, end peacefully.
Yes, getting home will still be a problem--the bikes, cars, buses and autos will take forever to move, but c'est la vie, if you're talking about Hyderabad, especially!
Ramadan mubarak and happy Ganesh Chaturthi to Hyderabadiz.
Hyderabad is suddenly being seen as the city of disasters by some of our prophets of doom. Yes, there have been tragic bomb blasts at Mecca Masjid on May 18 and at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat, three months later. Both the Mecca Masjid blast and the Lumbini Park blast could possibly have been averted with some vigilance, screening and precautionary measures. But, as always, we seem to be growing wise after the event. Public places now are more sensitive to security, which is a good thing.
The other tragedy that shook us up was the collapse of a section of the flyover near Panjagutta for which there are simply no excuses. The contractor, the consultant, GHMC and all the other government agencies are equally responsible for the death of Ankit Aurora, young techie whose life has been rudely cut short, and that of Ramu, a supporter of a politician, from Armoor. Disaster management is an expression our officials have not heard of. There is no nodal disaster management agency it appears, equipped with gas cutters and other emergency relief equipment. Of course, the officials were there to give sound 'bites' to tv cameras, sounding more like politicians than men on the job responsible for both the disaster and its relief operations. How else can one explain their irresponsibility in blaming 'the unprecended rain' for the flyover collapse? It rained for an hour dammit--I live about a mile away from the blessed flyover: I should know. Of course, a 'wizened' GHMC Commissioner clarified the next day that by 'unprecedented' rain was meant 'the quantum of rain in an hour, a single hour, that is.' Oh really! Give us a break Mr. Sarma! Like millions of other Hyderabadiz I was born in this city and have lived here all my life and have seen enough of 'unprecedented rain'. The GHMC and everybody else told the citizens of Hyderabad that this flyover and others being built along with this elsewhere in the city, were 'quake-proof' and 'terror-proof'. They're telling us now that they aren't even 'shower-proof'! GHMC is the new Alice in Hyderabad's Wonderland. Welcome to 'Greater' Hyderabad!
What is perhaps most striking in Hyderabad over the last few years, is the utter apathy of officialdom and the complete absence of accountability. Be it the bomb blasts, day to day civic problems or any form of interaction with the bureaucracy, this indifference, smugness and complacency, is all too obvious. The impact of this on the life of the city is evident--chaos passes for order and one doesn't require the IQ of an Edison or Einstein to see this. From a much sought-after destination and happening city some years ago, Hyderabad is fast losing its pre-eminence. If some semblance of governance is not restored soon, we'll slip back to the anarchic past in fast track.
If disrupting the life of the city was what our 'friends' across the border wanted, they failed miserably in achieving their aim.
‘No matter what we will stand together’ Citizens Take
"One thing that is important to know about Hyderabad is the spirit of the city. Initially people were disturbed by the two events but then Hyderabadis are known for their cool kind of perspective to life. The evening after the blasts, people returned.... The Hindu, Aug 30, 2007
Hyderabad expatriates shrug off role of external forces
By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter, Gulf News
Published: August 26, 2007, 23:40
Terror 'outsourced' in India, By Siddharth Srivastava, Asia Times
India finds unity in terror, By Sreeram Chaulia, Asia Times
Bottomline: Ishwar Allah Tere Jahan Mein Nafrat Kyoon Hai - 1947 Earth - [Azgar Khan]
Ishwar Allah Tere Jahan Mein
Nafrat Kyoon Hai, Jung Hai Kyoon
Tera Dil To, Itna Bada Hai
Insaan Ka Dil Tang Hai Kyoon
Ishwar Allah, Tere Jahan Mein
Nafrat Kyoon Hai, Jung Hai Kyoon
Tera Dil To, Itna Bada Hai
Insaan Ka Dil Tang Hai Kyoon
Kadam Kadam Par Sarhad Kyoon Hai
Saari Zameen Jo Teri Hai
Suraj Ke Pherey Karti Hai
Phir Kyoon Itni Andheri Hai
Is Duniya Ke Daaman Par
Insaan Ke Lahoo Ka Rang Hai Kyoon source: IbiboIshwar Allah Tere Jahan Mein
Singer: Chorus - 1947 Earth
Brought to you by: Azgar Khan
Shabana Azmi's Voice: 250 years of the British empire ended in 1947, but whats there to show for it? except the country divided, the massacres and kidnappings, vendettas and more violence, was it all worth it?
50 years have gone by since I betrayed my Aaya, some say she married Ice Candy Wala, some say they saw her in a brothel in Lahore, others that they saw her in Amritsar. But I never saw her again.
That day 1947 when I lost Aaya, I lost a large part of myself.
see Golconda Fort's neighbourhood
See also:
Hyderabadiz started moving out ages ago. The migration to distant lands gathered momentum in the 80s, picked up further in the 90s and is at an all-time high now, thanks to the IT boom. Many of the early settlers be they in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia or elsewhere in the world have their own little Indian communities and within that a community of Hyderabadiz that they move in.
London, Chicago and Toronto among dozens of other cities across the globe are clear examples of little Hyderabads that get built abroad. The second and third generation immigrants can barely relate to their roots, in the way their parents and grandparents want them to. But then, it's unfair to transplant them on alien shores and expect them to behave as though they live in Dabeerpura or Dilsukhnagar. It's only right that they are romans in Rome.
See also:
The one thing that's changing rapidly in Hyderabad, is the lifestyle of the average middleclass citizen. In tune with the changing skyline and towers that mark this change. The malls are a huge attraction and there are quite a few of them. The pubs are a big draw as are a host of new restaurants, and some resorts. The one refrain that's heard all the time is about the 'wretched traffic'. Not much can be done say some Hyderabadiz. There's nothing that can't be regulated say others. The rains are not making it any easier for us here. What are the silver linings then? We need some Hyderabadiz to respond to this query. Is it that it still has the most laidback lifestyle in the country? Or that it gives you the sort of cuisine that few regions offer? We need some Hyderabadiz to give us their take on this.......
We've had more than our fair of share of protests to put up with. Yet, our politicians simply don't seem to grow up. Who gets killed or even injured in police firing? The poor and the innocent. Hyderabadis are sick and tired of political parties doing this to the citizens--picking up a cause or latching on to it, as may be the case and going berserk in the name of 'protest'. For the past few days it's been the Leftists, with the Telugu Desam merrily jumping on their bandwagon.
What do we Hyderabadis have to say? Who's asking?
Hyderabad is all geared up to introduce multi-application smart cards soon.
These cards, which will double as driving licence and vehicle registration documents will also bring up--thanks to hand-held readers, the history of previous traffic offences, tax and insurance data and and related information on the driver.
The city's turning 'smart' if this bit of news is to be believed, but what about the worthy citizenry? Thereby hangs a litany of woes, which I'll save for another day. The only thing I'll whine about today is what our political parties are doing to Hyderabad--in terms of worsening things. They paralyze traffic for the flimsiest of reasons, creating hopeless snarls. The Left parties say they're doing it to get land for the landless. Others have other reasons. What do our 'netas' think of pressing in their cadre as traffic volunteers to show their protest, instead of getting them caned and fired upon by the police and paralyzing traffic? Idea worth publicizing? What say folks?
see also:
We're back with the same refrain--Hyderabadi roads and the attendant chaos that goes in the name of traffic. A longtime Mumbaikar (Deepak DeSouza) wrote to the DC yesterday complaining of the utter absence of pedestrians' rights in Hyderabad. His grievance is spot on.
Where are the 'footpaths', one may ask? In no other city does such chaotic traffic go unregulated, as Deepak rightly points out. That's sadly true. One simply has no place to walk--if one doesn't depend on any mode of transport, that is, such as a car/bike/auto/pushcart/bus/truck etc. 
The sidewalks have been taken over by 'nature's callers' and hawkers or more often, simply don't exist. Hyderabad's traffic police continues to wink blissfully at the anarchic movement of all and sundry on the streets. One would have expected an aggressive, pro-active campaign from the traffic authorities to bring some sanity on to the streets, but the big question is--where are they, Hyderabad's traffic police, I mean?
On a different note, if you're web-savvy, there are enough tools to navigate you. No longer do you need to ask in the local lingo-"yeh rastaa kaaN jaata?" And get the tongue-in-cheek retort--"kaiiN naiiN jaata bhai, bachpan se dekhruN... aap jaareN jaaN kaiiN jaareN." There are web-tools to help you get there--"jaaN kaiiN aap jaareN", that is.....be it Charminar, Gachhi Bowli or Nacharam!
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