A Glimpse Of Hyderabad: A Guide To Blending Business And Tourism

For the culture lover on a business trip to Hyderabad, you may feel the pull of wanting to get out and explore the city like a tourist. The following guide suggests some ways to make use of limited time in order to still get a feel for a vibrant and multi-layered city.

Mixing Business And Pleasure In Hyderabad

Without knowing it, you’ve actually been on a couple of business trips with the Salterton Arts Review at this stage. Those in the know will even be able to guess which industry I’m in, given this post is about Hyderabad and the next one will be on Bengaluru. I take work travel seriously: I’m there for a purpose, not for myself. But where I can reasonably use my spare time to explore a little, I often do so. Sometimes this means adding on a day here or there. Other times it takes the form of an early morning walk before meetings (like this one or this one).

India is a whole different beast. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if you’re there on a business trip it’s an investment on both sides and your days will be long. I was frequently collected from my hotel before 9 AM and dropped off after 10 or 11 PM, leaving little time for sleeping, let alone getting out and about. Secondly, everyone will have their own comfort level when they’re immersed in a different culture. You may not wish to be walking unfamiliar streets at dawn, for instance. And lastly, if you’re in Hyderabad for business you’re likely in Hi-Tec City (also known as Cyberabad), outside the centre.

Hyderabad is the capital and largest city in the Indian state of Telangana. It was established in 1591 by the Muslim Qutb Shahi dynasty, and today is India’s sixth biggest urban area. The influence of the Qutb Shahi period and Mughal Nizams is still visible in the city’s landmarks, culture and food. Hyderabad is also a major centre for pearls, representing 30% of the world’s pearl trade. Cyberabad is obviously much newer: a 1990s development concentrating IT and related industries in an area with its own infrastructure, accommodation and services.

The question for a culture-loving visitor is, how to get a sense of the two sides of the city when you only have time to catch a glimpse?

Food And Drink

The reason that food and drink are top of the list for this guide to experiencing Hyderabad on the go is that, whatever else you’re doing on your business trip, you will be eating and drinking. Your colleagues, clients or vendors are likely to want to share some local specialities with you. Particularly if you show an interest and can tolerate a little spice. Or if all else fails, you can try some local/Indian dishes for yourself as part of your hotel breakfast, washed down with a masala chai.

The main dish to look out for in Hyderabad is their biryani. As I said, the Muslim influences are readily apparent in Hyderabad. Their version of the biryani is distinctively flavoured, despite having the usual ingredients of basmati rice and mutton, with onion, yoghurt and spices. You may also try other mutton/goat-based dishes like kebabs or the buttery soup known as marag. If you’re looking for something sweeter, you could try pootharekulu. You can see some in the second image above: sugar, dried fruit and nuts wrapped in a starchy rice paper.

You may wonder what the artisan in the video above is doing in the food and drink section. Well, a lot of working dinners in Cyberabad/Hi-Tec City take place in hotel restaurants. Sometimes this means dinner plus either musicians or an activity: another way to imbibe a little culture on the fly. I was lucky enough to have dinner at Kangan at the Westin in Hyderabad. Kangan means ‘bangle’ in the local language, and you can have a bangle made to order between courses. Bangles made from clay and decorated with lacquer are a fixture in local markets. So this is like a little slice of Hyderabad’s Old Town conveniently brought to you.

Look Around You

OK, so eating and drinking we have covered. You will definitely be doing that. Another way to take in something of a place is to be attentive to what’s around you. You may not have much downtime on your business trip to Hyderabad, but you might be surprised how much you can learn just by looking out the window. And here I mean both in places like your hotel or restaurants, and when on the move in a car. Hence some of the sub-par photos above taken from moving vehicles.

The first thing you’ll notice when you come in from the city is the hustle and bustle. The traffic actually a little less intense in Hyderabad than other Indian cities due to its flyovers. At least until you try to get into the Old Town. But driving is a multi-sensory experience here, operating by its own rules. (Try to) relax and enjoy.

From your hotel you may be able to get a sense of Hi-Tec City, see some street vendors any maybe even glimpse a temple. If you do much driving, you can start to find out a little more from your driver or colleagues/clients/vendors. I had good conversations about what the area Hi-Tec City is built on used to look like, and learned about things like local wedding culture (couples hire colourful, illuminated chariots – see some examples here). If you treat all those excursions as opportunities to learn, you can really start to build a picture.

My final tip here is that if you have data on your phone, it can be interesting to follow your route on Google Maps. I noticed a few Muslim burial grounds tucked in between road infrastructure, for instance. Signs like this point to the city’s rapid development and the sweeping aside of old ways of life. There is a little bit of history in between all the modern tech companies.

Craft Market: Shilparamam

The first two sections were on ways to get acquainted with Hyderabad (and Cyberabad) alongside business activities. The next two sections are for those who are lucky enough to do a little sightseeing as well, and cover some sights you may see.

We start with Shilparamam. I’ve put this one first because one of its two locations is within the IT district of Hyderabad, making it a short trip and more likely destination than the Old Town. Shilparamam is a handicraft market on steroids. You need a ticket to enter, and inside will find stalls, museums, demonstrations and more. One of the Key Features on the website is ‘Foreigners Visiting’, so I guess technically you’re also part of the attractions. The handicrafts come from all over India so it’s not purely local, but is good if you don’t have much opportunity for shopping. It’s open from 10.30 AM until 8 PM.

We visited between work and dinner so only had limited time at Shilparamam. If you had a bit longer, the rural museum sounds intriguing. It is meant to give a glimpse into village life, with over 15 life-sized huts with artisans working inside. A colleague of mine did a little pearl shopping and I bought some wooden crafts, before we headed back to Hi-Tec City.

Other sights close by which you may have the opportunity to visit are:

• A (relatively new) botanic gardens

That’s about it… There are a few lakes and other such areas, but you really have to go a bit further to see the other sights of Hyderabad.

Further Afield: Charminar

Now we’re getting into typical sightseeing. It’s not a guarantee on a business trip to Hyderabad, but you may be lucky to get further afield. I was very fortunate. There was one day where sightseeing was built into the agenda. We were given a choice between two sights: Charminar or the Statue of Equality. The pros and cons were explained: the former is the symbol of Hyderabad but involves driving through bad traffic. The latter is not so bad traffic-wise but is a much newer sight.

In the end the traffic made us very late for dinner but it was worth it. Especially as we were gifted a model of Charminar so it was nice to see the original. Charminar means ‘four minarets’. The fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty built it in 1591 when he moved his capital here. Various stories about its origin exist, including that it was to commemorate the eradication of the plague from the city, or the beginning of the second Islamic millennium. It has a mosque on the top floor, a market surrounding it, and is close to the Old Town’s main mosque. A bustling area, in other words!

We enjoyed the experience, but the travel time was much longer than the visiting time so it won’t be for everyone. If you go earlier in the day you can climb to the top for a view, but it was closed when we arrived. If Charminar isn’t your thing, here are a few other suggestions:

• Golconda Fort
• Qutb Shahi Tombs
• That Statue of Equality we didn’t visit
• Chowmahalla Palace
• Salar Jung Museum

Some of these can’t be fitted around business hours so will require a day off or a weekend. More inspiration here.

In Conclusion: Mixing Business And Pleasure In Hyderabad

I hope I’ve given you some food for thought in terms of getting a sense of Hyderabad during a business trip. The main thing is, don’t despair. Even if you have no time to sightsee, food is an integral part of a culture and your hosts will likely be eager to share local dishes with you. And by taking an interest in what’s around with you and starting conversations, you can begin to get an idea of the place.

I was lucky to have a bit more time to explore and see Shilparamam and Charminar. But to be honest I also enjoyed the experience of seeing one of India’s tech cities for the first time. Compared to the only other place I’d been in India previously, Mumbai, it’s very different. It has more of an ‘East Meets West’ flavour, but is also a uniquely Indian solution to rapid growth in the IT industry. You probably wouldn’t visit Cyberabad if you were there just for tourism, so in a sense it’s best to make the most of it.

There will be a couple of posts coming up from cities I did have more time to explore. But I left my short trip to Hyderabad with a full stomach and nice memories of the things I’d seen and people I’d met. What more can you really ask from a new city?