Hyderabad Blues

First time I visited Hyderabad was when i was a kid of 7 years old. But, thanks to my work, I have got to visit Hyderabad a lot in the last few years. It is easily one of the better cosmopolitan cities in India. Wide roads, decent traffic, good crowd, pleasant weather (except for summers), nice culture, old monuments and amazing restaurants.

Before I visited Hyderebad, I did not have a great impression of the place. I thought it is a place where there was not much to do, people were borirng and weather would be freaking hot. But, my stay in hyderabad proved me wrong in all counts.

Weather
Except for 3 months in summer, weather in Hyderabad is very nice and pleasant through the year.

Restaurants, Hang out places and Things to do
One thing that strikes you best about Hyderabad is the variety of restaurants and hang out places. Some of my favorites have been Ten Downing Street (Begampet), Haveli (Begampet), and Orios chain.
When you are in Hyderabad you cannot miss its famous Biriyani in Paradise Hotel.
Another amazing hang out place would be the Eat Street. A very nice row of eat outs adjacent to the Hussein Sagar lake. If one has time, one could even go on a ferry ride to the buddha statue on the middle of the lake for just 30 ruppees. You can spend one whole evening and night in eat street. If you have more time, you can walk down to the INOX theatre to catch a good movie. If you are lazy, you can just take an auto for 10 ruppees.


If you have lot of time, you can visit the old hyderabad to admire the beautiful charminar. I believe it was built in 18th century. Even though it is not maintained well, It sure has a great view from the top.

If you are spending a weekend, you may want visit the secret lake near the Cyber city. True to its name, not many people know about it. It is a scenic place to spend a quite evening with your wife or partner or friend.
If you are religious, I would recommend you not miss the old Birla Mandir Temple for Krishna. If you go in the night, you could get a wonderful view of the necklace road. It really looks like a necklace in the night. But it is quite crowded in the weekends. So watch out.

Shopping
You cannot find a better place than Hyderabad for some serious shopping. It is known for its bangles. You can find real good ones in the lane opposite to Charminar. But make sure, you bargain heavily to get a good deal. Other stuff you might want to pick up while you are there are sarrees.
If you are a book lover, you should visit abids on sunday evenings. They have an amazing collection of all kinds of books selling on pavements. You get amazing bargains.

Crowd
The people component makes a huge difference to any city. Hyderabad has a varied mix of ultra conservative muslims to super cool cosmopolitan crowd. So, you take your pick and mingle accordingly. Like in any other south indian city, you will find them to be quite modest and down to earth. Also, with all these new IT and BPO companies sprouting around, the number of North Indian immigrants have increased. This only adds to the ever growing diversity of amazing hyderabad.