When my major project guide, Mr Prasanna, suggested I present my project results at a National Biotech Conference at Sri Nidhi Institute of Science & Technology, Hyderabad, little did I know this trip was going to be a bang in more ways than one! For starters, it would be the first time I would be on “business” for myself and I also got an excuse to meet some of the guys in Hyderabad. Sadly Sachin didn’t get permission from BPCL to join me but Sandeep certainly was enthusiastic about the entire thing…
So here I was on the evening of 29-0-2009 in the KSRTC Airavat bus bound for Hyderabad and I found myself watching a Telugu movie with no idea whatsoever about the dialogues but could grasp enough to see it was a pretty good movie.
The morning of 30-06-2009 at 8:22 AM and I was in the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (M.G.B.S) terminal which, as I certainly found out to my chagrin, is the biggest bus station in all of Asia. Sandeep was no different than the last time I saw him (Just 2 months ago) and we checked into the nearby Nandhini Lodge.
If you have been to Hyderabad before then you realise why as a non-vegetarian we crave for their Kebabs and Biriyani and this was on our minds for the past week. Sadly the two most popular biriyani joints (Bawaarchi and Paradise) were too far away from were we resided so we took a chance and went to the Char-Minar area hoping to get a taste of authentic muslim chicken biriyani. It took about 30 mins to get away from the maze of jewellery shops all around but finally we decided to take a risk on a Hotel Shama (which we later learnt was famous for its Irani Chai) and went in…
The décor was pathetic but the food- Only here did we realise that the quantity contemplates the quality of the biriyani as we each ordered 1 plate each to realise its actually a mountain full. After 45 mins and various rest stops with nothing but our egos making us continue, two muslims gave us company in front of us and took great delight in announcing that the local women could have a plate each while the men had a few rotis before having a plate each. With our egos totally destroyed, one of them took the liberty of “advising” us in Kannada no less to just stop and leave it which we gladly did.
We planned to walk back the entire way (5+ Kms) and decided to explore what looked like an old palace which turned out to be the Osmania General Hospital!
After 30 mins of sitting and groaning, we came back to the room and slept our asses off for a few hours before rehearsing for the presentation the following day and, after a few Russell Peter joke segments, retired for the night: The biriyani was omnipresent still now L
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