Space is a scarce commodity in the vicinity of Charminar. Navigating through the maze of roads requires special skill. One needs to be careful to not tread on anyone’s toes and ensure one doesn’t get trampled upon. Each visit to the Old City is likely to take us into unexplored nooks, and there’s no dearth of such corners. On a casual visit, how many of us stand still and take a closer look at the many shops?
The Deccan Odyssey, a package offered to guests staying at Taj Krishna, hopes to make this discovery of Old City somewhat easier.
There are plenty of tour options from the tourism department and private players to visit the Golconda Fort, Chowmahalla Palace, Purani Haveli, Charminar and the Laad Bazaar, but if the idea is to sip Irani chai at a café, buy bangles without bargaining or pick up flavourful biryani masala, Deccan Odyssey has some answers.
Nimrah Café, located near Charminar, may be missed unless one looks beyond the several push cart vendors that dot the junction. Nimrah has a baking unit attached to its premises that makes it possible to offer fresh bakes every half hour to its customers. Fresh trays of Osmania biscuits, coconut cookies, oats cookies (who says the Old City hasn’t caught up with new trends?), sweet tinged Dilkhush buns and plain buns are brought in every few minutes. For those unaccustomed to intensely sweet and milky Irani chai, the café offers coffee and black tea.
Raiza Kubra, the guide accompanying the group, says the café is welcoming of women customers as well. “Normally women would hesitate to enter Irani cafés teeming with men, but with a focussed group, there’s no need to feel inhibited,” she says.
Chai and biscuits later, the team ambles into Laad Bazaar to halt at Nayeem bangle store. Selecting a store, says the Deccan Odyssey team, saves tourists the trouble of being beckoned by umpteen vendors and getting perplexed at the prices quoted. Bangles decked with glittery stones aside, the store has subdued, elegant lac bangles with small, circular stones juxtaposed with spindle-shaped ones.
The lad bazaar is cited as an ideal destination to pick up laces and embroidered borders that enhance anarkalis, saris and skirts. Don’t know where to look? Raiza guides us to Afzal Miyan Karchobwale. This little store on the main road is one of the best kept secrets of the bazaar. High profile clients include designers Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Tarun Tahiliani apart from the Nizam’s family. Afzal mentions that the exclusive stock is not displayed prominently at the store but they are willing to oblige clients looking for something special. From simple lace borders that cost Rs. 300 or 500 to hand embroidered zardosi velvet mats used in high-profile weddings, this place is a treasure house.
At the fag end of Lad Bazaar is our last stop, a spice corner owned by Naurang. Among a host of nuts and spices, mehndi and bath products, Naurang also sells biryani masala that bursts with flavours. A pinch will suffice for a pot of biryani, Naurang says. The masala seems to be in demand. He shows us the powder he made on order for a client from Kerala. The masala is made from 17 spices, he says, but clams up when quizzed about the spices that go into it.
The Deccan Odyssey is amenable to change, if guests want to shop for pearls and are game to visit a wholesale dealer.
New look at Old City
Deccan Odyssey package offers a two-night stay at Taj Krishna’s Deluxe Room at Rs 20,000 per room (inclusive of taxes) on double occupancy. The package includes traditional welcome, welcome drink on arrival, auto rickshaw transfers to and from Old City and dinner at Firdaus.
Alternatively, guests can check into the exclusive Club Room for two nights at Rs. 27,000 per room (inclusive of taxes) on double occupancy and avail other facilities.
For those who’d prefer car transfers, the hotel will provide the same.
When: Till March 31, 2015
For details, email reservations.hyderabad@tajhotels.com or call 040-66293232.
