5 reasons why Hyderabad is better than Bangalore

I went to Hyderabad to meet my friend Partha-da. He has been asking me to come over for a weekend for a long time. Finally I managed to visit them (Partha-da and his wife Joyeeta). First impression of Hyderabad: I loved the city. Here are five reasons why:

1. Auto wallas: In three days, I haven’t faced a single refusal; neither have I seen any haggling for fare. In fact, one of them took a few rupees less since I didn’t have change! And all of them speak Hindi, unlike the Bangalore rickshaw walla, who sometime conveniently forgets how to speak Hindi!

2. Food: Oh, the Biriyani! And then there is the biriyani! And some more! Can’t get enough of it. In three days, I had biriyani thrice :-)

3. Service: I am talking about food service here. The service received in every restaurant in Hyderabad is excellent, even in very small restaurants. These guys know how to serve.

4. Infrastructure: Hyderabad scores way above Bangalore when it comes to infrastructure. The roads are better and the flyovers really help. Going to Hi-tech city took less then 20 minutes from Tank Bund. One should go to hi-tech city to see how well they have set up that place.

5. Recreation: Anywhere I went, there were not too many people, surprisingly for a weekend. In and around Hussainsagar lake, there are three public gardens, one food court, one multiplex-cum-shopping complex, one water park(under construction) and boating facilities. There are other heritage places as well like the Golconda fort, Charminar and the museums. Not like Bangalore where there are three places to visit: M.G. Road, Garuda mall and Forum mall.

My first visit to Hyderabad was thoroughly enjoyable, thanks to Partha-da and Joyeeta.
Their home cooked food will give very tough competition to the excellent hyderabadi food, if they ever decide to open a food joint. And all the cooking happened in between roaming with me tirelessly! Thank you so much. I was also very glad to meet Alok Sinha (ex-colleague from Hughes) after a long time. Also managed to go to the IBM office in hi-tech city. Nice set-up. Thanks to Kailash for the last biriyani at Paradise 30 minutes before the bus left. Photos will take some time. Till then...