By now, most of you know that I would be leaving Hyderabad and relocating. Like most people, I too share a love-hate relationship with the city that I live in. I love certain things about Hyderabad and hate a few things about it. Now that I would be relocating, I would like to focus on the positives as those are the things that I would be missing about the city. So, in no particular order, here are the things that I know I would definitely miss:
Street Shopping at Koti-Sultan Bazaar:
Every city in India, I believe, has its own landmark street shopping area. In Hyderabad, Koti-Sultan Bazaar is one of the popular places for street shopping. It is an amalgamation of some exquisite shops and the usual street vendors. One can find a whole lot of things here from clothes, furnishing, hobby stores, books etc. Being a foodie, one of my favourite shops there is Rajshree Dry Fruits. The name may suggest it is a dry fruit shop, but it also sells amazing packed food, ready to eat/cook, instant foods from Maharashtra and Gujarat. Do try and get their instant Misal, which is extremely close to the freshly prepared one. It is a must visit for all the foodies. Another must visit is Joshi Pickles which sells many Maharashtrian delicacies (strange! I know, too many Maharashtrian places there!)
Balaji Grand Bazar:
While we are still on the subject of food, Balaji Grand Bazar is one of my favourite supermarkets in the city. They have about 5-6 branches in the city. The ones I have visited most often is the one in Basheer Bagh and the other one at Masab Tank en route Banjara Hills Road No. 12. This store is very unique as it sells some of the rarest spices- many of which I have not even heard of, and a lot of difficult to find food stuff, including imported food stuff. Since many products sold in the shop are imported, rare/difficult to find, the prices are on a slightly (only slightly!)higher side. However, I loved the place and never ever left it with light bags :)
Sunday Book Market at Abids:
On Sundays, almost the whole of Abids market area transforms into a massive book market, mainly for used books. One can also find very rare books, magazines and comics at throwaway prices. I have bought books at prices as low as Rs 10 and 20. If you are a book worm, this place is a must visit for you. Now, in the last 2 years, I have not been visiting it too often but it was always reassuring to know it exists and one can just go over if bored on a Sunday. You can follow this blog of someone who visits it almost every Sunday.
Other things about Abids, not related to books but worth a mention- Hollywood shoes. This is a big shoe shop in the heart of Abids where one can find their style and size. Those who know me well, know that I struggle to find my shoe size in India, especially because it is in between 2 sizes. However, Hollywood has never disappointed me. It gets extremely crowded there during the weekends (I have always visited the place during weekends) and you might find it difficult to find people to attend to you.
I also visited Deccan Pen Stores in Abids quite frequently for my love of stationery. They have 3 branches in the city if I am not mistaken and I have visited all of them. However, the one at Abids and Ameerpet (below Haldiram's) are my favourites. The store is dedicated to pens, inks, refills with some amount of other stationery as well. They also make their own pens which they will display and tell the story behind them to you with a lot of passion, even if you are not interested in buying them. They take a lot of pride in making them. Now these are not pens which will cost you a few hundreds (they have those as well) but the really good ones go up to thousands and sometimes, hundreds of thousands too.
Numaish- The annual trade fair:
I love visiting Numaish, the annual trade fair that happens in Nampally Exhibition Grounds every year from Jan to Feb. It draws traders from all over India and consumers from all over Hyderabad. I understand the daily footfall at this event is approximately 1,00,000. I had written about my 2017 experience earlier this year. You can click here to read more. My family and I have purchased a lot of things from Numaish, from instant geysers to dry fruits and nuts, clothes, junk jewellery etc. It is not a place if you hate crowds but a must visit if you do not mind the crowd and just want to have fun.
The Commute- Way to Work and Back:
I really love the route that I took to go to work and come back. Coming from Bangalore, the roads in Hyderabad are relatively congestion free for a big part (although of late, some signs of Bangalore style traffic have become common in a few parts). Apart from that, there is a beautiful and cooling KBR Park and an upscale Banjara Hills area which are just lovely. I also consider myself lucky to have the Buddha on the Hussain Sagar lake waving a hello and blessing me every day. In the evenings, the Buddha statue on the lake is illuminated and it is quite a beautiful sight. One of India's largest flags is hoisted at the Sanjeevaiah Park and it is nice to see it in all its glory, while going to/coming back home from work. Near the Masab Tank area is a hospital- Virinchi but it looks palatial- always has people wondering if it is indeed a hospital. There is also a glimpse of the sparkling white marble from the Birla Mandir, which I love viewing.
My Workplace:
Last, but not the least, I consider myself very fortunate to have a remarkable workplace. In terms of facilities provided to employees, it is in the 5 star category with a huge cafeteria (FOOD on my mind again!!) which would remind one of a huge food court in a big mall. It caters to all, with a wide variety of food and special dietary requirements (including Satwik meals!!). There is a lovely restaurant and a great coffee shop in the campus too with great quality of food. All other facilities provided to employees are great as well. However, these are only material in nature. What I am going to miss the most is the great set of people I worked with, the healthy working relationships built and the good and bad times we have lived through together. I have worked with some not-so-great people as well but it has only helped learn better and understand how to deal with people. Like I said, I would like to focus on the positives- it was a privilege for me to work with a set of great minds and terrific human beings. The culture of collaboration was great and be it my functional team or my project teams- I loved working with all of them and will surely miss everyone a lot. To be honest, I do not really feel like I have left the place. I feel I am on a long vacation and will be back some day.
These were the first things that came to my mind. There are a few other things as well, like the community Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, the Ganesh Visarjan- it is quite different from other states and in 2017, it was managed incredibly well by the Hyderabad Traffic Police- kudos to them. If I think of more things or if I genuinely miss some other things, I will do a part 2 of this blog.
P.S: I do not know if you recall my post about my move to Hyderabad. You can read about it here.
Street Shopping at Koti-Sultan Bazaar:
Every city in India, I believe, has its own landmark street shopping area. In Hyderabad, Koti-Sultan Bazaar is one of the popular places for street shopping. It is an amalgamation of some exquisite shops and the usual street vendors. One can find a whole lot of things here from clothes, furnishing, hobby stores, books etc. Being a foodie, one of my favourite shops there is Rajshree Dry Fruits. The name may suggest it is a dry fruit shop, but it also sells amazing packed food, ready to eat/cook, instant foods from Maharashtra and Gujarat. Do try and get their instant Misal, which is extremely close to the freshly prepared one. It is a must visit for all the foodies. Another must visit is Joshi Pickles which sells many Maharashtrian delicacies (strange! I know, too many Maharashtrian places there!)
Balaji Grand Bazar:
While we are still on the subject of food, Balaji Grand Bazar is one of my favourite supermarkets in the city. They have about 5-6 branches in the city. The ones I have visited most often is the one in Basheer Bagh and the other one at Masab Tank en route Banjara Hills Road No. 12. This store is very unique as it sells some of the rarest spices- many of which I have not even heard of, and a lot of difficult to find food stuff, including imported food stuff. Since many products sold in the shop are imported, rare/difficult to find, the prices are on a slightly (only slightly!)higher side. However, I loved the place and never ever left it with light bags :)
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| Balaji Grand Bazar- Masab Tank Branch |
Sunday Book Market at Abids:
On Sundays, almost the whole of Abids market area transforms into a massive book market, mainly for used books. One can also find very rare books, magazines and comics at throwaway prices. I have bought books at prices as low as Rs 10 and 20. If you are a book worm, this place is a must visit for you. Now, in the last 2 years, I have not been visiting it too often but it was always reassuring to know it exists and one can just go over if bored on a Sunday. You can follow this blog of someone who visits it almost every Sunday.
Other things about Abids, not related to books but worth a mention- Hollywood shoes. This is a big shoe shop in the heart of Abids where one can find their style and size. Those who know me well, know that I struggle to find my shoe size in India, especially because it is in between 2 sizes. However, Hollywood has never disappointed me. It gets extremely crowded there during the weekends (I have always visited the place during weekends) and you might find it difficult to find people to attend to you.
I also visited Deccan Pen Stores in Abids quite frequently for my love of stationery. They have 3 branches in the city if I am not mistaken and I have visited all of them. However, the one at Abids and Ameerpet (below Haldiram's) are my favourites. The store is dedicated to pens, inks, refills with some amount of other stationery as well. They also make their own pens which they will display and tell the story behind them to you with a lot of passion, even if you are not interested in buying them. They take a lot of pride in making them. Now these are not pens which will cost you a few hundreds (they have those as well) but the really good ones go up to thousands and sometimes, hundreds of thousands too.
Numaish- The annual trade fair:
I love visiting Numaish, the annual trade fair that happens in Nampally Exhibition Grounds every year from Jan to Feb. It draws traders from all over India and consumers from all over Hyderabad. I understand the daily footfall at this event is approximately 1,00,000. I had written about my 2017 experience earlier this year. You can click here to read more. My family and I have purchased a lot of things from Numaish, from instant geysers to dry fruits and nuts, clothes, junk jewellery etc. It is not a place if you hate crowds but a must visit if you do not mind the crowd and just want to have fun.
The Commute- Way to Work and Back:
I really love the route that I took to go to work and come back. Coming from Bangalore, the roads in Hyderabad are relatively congestion free for a big part (although of late, some signs of Bangalore style traffic have become common in a few parts). Apart from that, there is a beautiful and cooling KBR Park and an upscale Banjara Hills area which are just lovely. I also consider myself lucky to have the Buddha on the Hussain Sagar lake waving a hello and blessing me every day. In the evenings, the Buddha statue on the lake is illuminated and it is quite a beautiful sight. One of India's largest flags is hoisted at the Sanjeevaiah Park and it is nice to see it in all its glory, while going to/coming back home from work. Near the Masab Tank area is a hospital- Virinchi but it looks palatial- always has people wondering if it is indeed a hospital. There is also a glimpse of the sparkling white marble from the Birla Mandir, which I love viewing.
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| Glimpse of the Virinch Hospital |
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| A view of the illuminated Buddha. Taken on the go with zoom- Sorry for the image quality. It is much more remarkable in reality. My friends from Hyderabad will vouch for it. :) |
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| One of India's largest flags and I am lucky to have the bright moon in the backdrop. The image is not doing any justice to the actual view. Bad shot :( |
My Workplace:
Last, but not the least, I consider myself very fortunate to have a remarkable workplace. In terms of facilities provided to employees, it is in the 5 star category with a huge cafeteria (FOOD on my mind again!!) which would remind one of a huge food court in a big mall. It caters to all, with a wide variety of food and special dietary requirements (including Satwik meals!!). There is a lovely restaurant and a great coffee shop in the campus too with great quality of food. All other facilities provided to employees are great as well. However, these are only material in nature. What I am going to miss the most is the great set of people I worked with, the healthy working relationships built and the good and bad times we have lived through together. I have worked with some not-so-great people as well but it has only helped learn better and understand how to deal with people. Like I said, I would like to focus on the positives- it was a privilege for me to work with a set of great minds and terrific human beings. The culture of collaboration was great and be it my functional team or my project teams- I loved working with all of them and will surely miss everyone a lot. To be honest, I do not really feel like I have left the place. I feel I am on a long vacation and will be back some day.
These were the first things that came to my mind. There are a few other things as well, like the community Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, the Ganesh Visarjan- it is quite different from other states and in 2017, it was managed incredibly well by the Hyderabad Traffic Police- kudos to them. If I think of more things or if I genuinely miss some other things, I will do a part 2 of this blog.
P.S: I do not know if you recall my post about my move to Hyderabad. You can read about it here.
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