Loving Hyderabad all over again

With friends and family visiting Hyderabad, Ramzan turns out to be a preferred time for a city tour

Is it just the Old City, that attracts us during Ramzan? A look at social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter widens the map. Apparently Hyderabadis make use of the Ramzan festival to revisit their city. The reason and occasion that makes them tourists in their own city are their friends and families from different states and cities who prefer to see the city in the Ramzan festive mood. “I have had a lot of guests from Delhi and Kolkata who wanted to see the city during this time. My guests from Kolkata compared their enthusiasm of visiting Hyderabad during Ramzan to be similar to when they have guests during Durga Puja in their city,” says Sirisha Kumar, a social scientist .

As a result Sirisha visited the Tank Bund area to show the Buddha Statue, the Sanjeevaiah Park besides making several rounds of the Old City. “My guests enjoyed the carefree attitude of people in the Old City and loved interacting with street hawkers here. They stuffed themselves with so much food on every visit that they’d often skip their breakfast and lunch the following day,” she adds.

Were these tourists photo enthusiasts as well? “Not really. My friends were all ‘selfie enthusiasts’. Their plans of visiting Hyderabad during Ramzan have been long pending. I usually have one or two odd friends visiting me for a weekend to get ‘high’ on haleem. However, this year, without any plans I ended up being host to the ‘tourist friends’ and I loved doing the touristy things which I would otherwise do in other cities,” says Natasha Mehra who works with the hotel industry. She continues, “My friend from Rajasthan said ‘it is way more beautiful than what I expected.’” Natasha did random city tours and instead of hopping malls and various watering holes, went on drives and checked out popular spots which show up with the #Hyderabad on Instagram. “After having spent six years in the city, I went to see the Buddha Vihar in Mahendra Hills for my friends. I loved the serenity up at the Hills. Even though we hardly wear bangles, we totally freaked out at Laad bazaar. Also none of us are fans of haleem but we all totally loved the biryanis, lassis and the

paan . I made sure all my friends tried one traditional Thali here, the spicy one,” laughs Natasha.Some don’t need friends living here to see Hyderabad. A group of four girls came to the city to experience the city on their own. “Various FB groups and pages are our guides. We have been here for the past two days and have kept the best for the last. Today we’ll be visiting the Old City and then dinner at the much talked about Zaika-e-Ramzan, but before we head out to the Old City today, we make a pit stop at Sarvi for their haleem. A little bit of gluttony is acceptable,” says Nagpur-based Kehkeshaan who planned her visit with her cousins Sabina and Sabah from Visakhapatnam.

A few others are extending the tour to see nearby places in Telangana. “The drive on the ORR was amazing and we also loved the Nizamabad highway. With the clouds looming large over the road, the drive was picturesque. The districts aren’t much into Ramzan celebration, but experiencing it in the city was something else,” says Manish, who came with his friends from Ahmedabad.