Hyderabadi Biryani

My next trip was to Hyderabad. It’s a really interesting city, a Muslim capital for a predominantly Hindu state (Andhra Pradesh). It was ruled by a series of Nizams (the local equivalent of a Raj) who had great wealth and culture. With Indian independence in 1947, all these smaller kings (around 400 of them) agreed to give up their rule and join the country. All except for Mir Osman Ali. This last Nizam refused! He was a little crazy. Anyway, he did not succeed in his bid to keep Hyderabad independent (in fact, it was something of a massacre).

The architecture of the city reflects its Moghul past. There are some lovely old buildings around the city and a huge lake that was dug over 400 years ago. Now, Hyderabad is one of India’s high-tech capitals, so when you call for outsourced technical support, you can ask Vijay about the biryani (everyone can know Hyderabadi biryani is very best!)

My visit there was a mixed bag. Here’s the negative:
• I got sick and spent 2 days alone in a flat, too weak to go get food for myself.
• 2 bombs went off and killed 41 people.
• Some other AJWS volunteers were supposed to come and I was SO looking forward to spending time with them, but because of the blasts, they decided to stay up north.
• The initial reason for the trip was to attend a wedding (a family member of an L.A. friend) but for a bunch of reasons, I didn’t get to go. Anitha garu, I hope your granny’s OK and you didn’t lose your job!

OK, now the good things about Hyderabad:
• I read some good novels -- Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry (he’s a master craftsman), Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (kept my interest up through all 900 pages), and a trashy Shoba De novel (the Jackie Collins of Bollywood).
• I bought 2 cute tops from Anokhi, my favorite shop in India.
• I met this great guy at the CD store who helped me buy all kinds of music, from Classical Indian to Asian Underground.
• I found this publishing house, Booksline, that puts out educational materials (in Telegu!) that were totally on target to help with my presentations. I bought the entire set of posters. VERY exciting for me!
• Last, and the opposite of least, I met the Dangoria family.

A neighbor of mine back in LA spent a semester with Devyani Dangoria about 30 years ago. She recommended that I contact her, and I am SO glad that I did. I called Devyani Auntie and told her I am lonely. She immediately sent her nephew Nitin to come fetch me from the other side of the city. Being lonely is just one of the worst possible things in India!

Devyani garu is 74 years old and an obstetrician still working full time. She opened an OB hospital in front of her house and she runs a prenatal clinic there. They do about 150 deliveries a month. But that’s not enough. She also built an OB hospital in Narsapur, a small tribal village about 3 hours from Hyderabad. There’s a nursing home and a nutrition center there, too. They're developing food processing projects that can turn bumper crops into chutneys and sauces for sale.

Naniba’s family story is straight out of a novel. Her father was the chief engineer/architect for the last Nizam! They used to own a very large property on the outskirts of the city. Monkeys would roam around the garden, but now most of the property was sold off and apartment blocks were built. There is a cinema across the street and the city has just engulfed their neighborhood. I guess someday even Narsapur will just be a suburb.

The family was incredibly welcoming and taught me so much about Indian traditions and values. Spending time with the Dangorias redeemed the whole Hyderabad trip for me.

Some other impressions of Hyderabad:
• Trying to explore the city on foot (my favorite way to get to know a city is to wander around, get lost, buy some street food, find myself on the map then get lost again). Walking the city streets in India is incredibly unpleasant. There are no actual sidewalks to speak of, and where one does exist, it’s occupied by vendors, beggars, dogs... The roadsides are full of monsoon rain and mud and cow dung and trash. And the streets are full of scooters, motorcycles, autorickshaws, cars, trucks and buses, all spewing varying shades of exhaust, threading the needle and swerving randomly to avoid potholes and cows.
If you’re stubborn like me, and insist on ‘strolling’, trying to convince yourself that it’s so picturesque, and you’re really enjoying yourself, there will be an endless stream of yellow rickshaws that pull right up to you, honking invitingly. Those are the lazy ones. The ones that really want to be helpful, go ahead and pull right in front of you.
I was ‘enjoying’ walking along the footpath around Hussein Sagar, the man-made lake in the middle of Hyderabad, savoring the smells of rotting trash in water and human excrement, when I read one of the signs posted there. It warned against remaining lakeside for too long, as it can be injurious to your health. Underneath the text, was a picture of a digital clock showing 18 minutes. What can I possibly say about that?
• The sounds of the street floating up through the window – the muezzin call to prayer, and my favorite pushcart vendor calling in a honey-sweet voice “sa-MOOOOO-sa! sa-MOOOOO-sa!”
• A bicycle with a HUGE load of balls captured under a net, brightest rainbow colors, riding down one of the busiest streets in town.
• A sadhu with a long white beard, wearing a bright orange cloth, carrying a beautiful wooden stick, riding pillion on a Vespa.
• The gypsy camps on the outskirts of town. They have camels!
• The ladies wearing 'ninja' burkas, and the blingy outfits you can just glimpse underneath.

Hope you like the pictures. There's Bhavna and Sangita with chocolate chip cookies (is this family a fantasy or what?), Devyani Garu at work in the OR, a Lambada tribal woman, a very 'low birth weight' baby, and Murthy with his processed foods.
This week’s soundtrack is Bally Sagoo, Talvin Singh, and Pandit Ravi Shankar.