Hyderabad, One Year In: Some Ordinary Analyses
Observations on food, roads, people, and the peculiar charm of India’s most confusingly nice city.
It’s been exactly one year since I moved to Hyderabad. My third Indian city in three years - and the fourth overall. Here are some ordinary analyses of my time here:
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Food
One’s palette often dictates the kind of food one enjoys, and that palette is shaped by the food one grew up eating. This might be one reason I’ve never taken to Hyderabadi Biryani. I’d pick Kolkata-style Biryani any day. Oddly enough, I had decent Kolkata-style Biryani in both Bangalore and Gurugram. But in Hyderabad? None - at least not yet.
Hyderabad wears its Biryani as a badge of identity. And when you’re sitting this close to the epicentre, maybe it’s hard to carve out an alternative identity.
That said, other non-veg options are solid. The quantity-to-price ratio here is far better than anything I got in Bangalore or Gurugram.
And surprisingly? The best Bengali sweets I’ve had outside Kolkata are right here. There are several sweet shops with “Delhi” in the name - Delhi Mithai Wala, Delhi Mithai Ghar, etc. - and most of them serve great sweets, sometimes even better Bengali sweets than expected.
Haven’t found a good ice-cream joint though. Corner House remains the undisputed champion. Nothing has come close to Cake Fudge or Cake-a-Mocha.
Infrastructure & Transport
West Hyderabad - what you might call the ‘New Hyderabad’ - is a planned city. And the road infrastructure here is impressive. It has its issues, sure, but the connectivity and capacity to handle traffic genuinely impressed me.
Like Kolkata, Hyderabad has its IT companies concentrated in one region. So office-hour congestion tends to be unidirectional. Gurugram, Bangalore, and Mumbai are structured quite differently in that regard.
But when it comes to last-mile connectivity, I don’t think any big Indian metro fares worse than Hyderabad. Buses are rare and unreliable. Metro expansion has been slow. If you don’t own a vehicle here, you’re going to struggle.
People
People in Bangalore struck a balance - less laid-back than Kolkata, far less chaotic than Delhi or Mumbai. That’s one reason I liked Bangalore. Hyderabad, in this sense, isn’t very different. Here’s how I now see Indian cities on my personal laid-back & chaotic scale:
If Bangaloreans live by a “swalpa adjust maadi” ethos, Hyderabadis carry a “ho jayega Miya” attitude. It’s comforting in its own way.
In fact, the locals here are possibly the nicest bunch of people I’ve come across - no exaggeration. But it still confuses me how these nice people transform so completely behind the wheel. Rowdy driving is a real thing here, specially by the Autos.
One aspect of Kolkata I’ve started appreciating in hindsight is traffic discipline. People actually follow the rules there. Maybe because there’s already a bigger gunda on the road - the Buses?
Also, the people here really love their Tollywood stars. I once casually said, “Mahesh Babu is the Salman Khan of the South”... and let’s just say, my Telugu colleagues weren’t too thrilled. Lesson learnt.
First Final Impression
Considering the tradeoffs, Hyderabad might just be one of the best cities to live in India, if not the best. The weather isn’t as pleasant as Bangalore’s, but it is far better than what you get in Delhi, Mumbai, or Kolkata. The roads and infrastructure beat Bangalore’s, though perhaps not Delhi’s. In terms of job opportunities, it’s still not quite in the top three, but it’s catching up.
It’s only been a year. I don’t know how long I’ll be here. But here it is - my first final impression, which I hope to revisit and update with time.
P.S.: My impressions are based entirely on West Hyderabad. Old Hyderabad is a different ball game.
If you’ve lived in any of these cities, or just enjoy slow observations, do share it ahead.