Hyderabad
Why the City of Pearls is also the heart of modern India by Camille Chin
H .
yderabad, it seems, is destined to live in the lap of luxury. The 421-year-old capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh, in India’s southeast, made its riches on the trade of diamonds and pearls. The 105-carat Koh-iNoor diamond that’s set atop the Queen Mother’s 1937 platinum coronation crown was excavated in the ruined city of Golconda, 11 kilometres to the west, and, today, 90 percent of the world’s pearls are still pierced and strung in Hyderabad, a city of seven million Hindus and Muslims. The craftsmanship of their jewellery is unsurpassed (save up your shopping rupees!), but, as anywhere, some people’s principles are not. Fake gems are rampant so buy from a place like Kedarnathji Motiwale Jewellers (22-7-17 and 22 Pathergatti; kedarnathji.com), a business founded in 1908 and passed down from father to son to grandson. The shop is so well-known that there are knockoffs of the store itself. To make sure you’re in the real McCoy, look for a pic of one of India’s past Presidents handing an award to the owners. Then and only then, can you shop for your satlada (or seven-strand pearl necklace set with diamonds, emeralds or rubies) in peace. Krishna (6-3-883/2/3 Punjagutta; krishnapearls.com) and Mangatrai (5-9-46 Basheer Bagh, plus three other locations; mangatraijewellery. com) are also reliable, with well-to-do locals favouring the first. Hyderabad’s new wealth comes from the biotech, drug and IT industries. The latter has entrenched itself in the aptly coined Cyberabad district, about a 30-minute drive northwest of the city’s gritty downtown. Microsoft, Oracle and other giants of the software world have campuses at HITEC City (ltinfocity.com), a 60-hectare, US$375-million IT park that includes a colossal glass-and-steel cylinder that is the Cyber Towers as well as an equally futuristic-looking giant arch that is Cyber Gateway; 2012 International Scientific both are office spaces. Conference of the World Indeed, Cyberabad has, Allergy Organization for many, become the new December 6-9 Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore). Hyderabad International Convention Centre This December, it’ll be big tel: 414-276-1791; with MDs too. The WAO www.worldallergy.org/wisc2012 conference is being hosted at the city’s 5000-capacity for 2000+ conferences: convention centre, adjacent doctorsreview.com/meetings to modern India itself.
Built in 1894, the recently restored Taj Falaknuma is known as the “Mirror of the Sky” because it sits on a hill and towers over Hyderabad.
Ninety percent of the world’s pearls still pass through Hyderabad for piercing and stringing
The essentials
Experience the HI Swallowing an up to seven-centimetre, live snakehead murrel stuffed with a secret herbal medicine might seem like a zany respiratory-disorder treatment to you, but that’s what thousands of asthmatics have been doing for 167 years every June in Hyderabad. It (sort of) makes sense then that the WAO conference is happening there this winter, when temperatures are at their coolest and average 21°C in December.
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Medicine on the movE
FALL • September 2012
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Save your shopping rupees: the craftsmanship of Hyderabad’s jewellery is unsurpassed.
The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace (Raheja IT Park; westin.com/ hyderabadmindspace) in HITEC City will cost conferencing MDs about $180 a night, but by all accounts it’s worth it. TripAdvisor users have ranked it second out of all the hotels in Hyderabad and it was one of the winners in the Travellers’ Choice Trendiest Hotels in India category. (The former home of past Nizams, the European-inspired palace now the new Taj Falaknuma, is number one, but it’s not a conference hotel and nightly rates are between $300 to $400). Cyberabad’s hottest new restos are also in the Westin. Among them is Kangan. There, chef Rakesh Singh dreams up his take on the creamy and spicy Peshawari cooking traditions of the former North-West Frontier Province (of British India and later Pakistan). Expect the hotel’s lounges (like Mix) to be full of twenty- and thirtysomething techies who work nearby. But it’s not all highbrow in HITEC City. Shilparamam (near the Cyber Towers; shilparamam.org; admission $1) is a 26-hectare outdoor arts and crafts village where artisans peddle their handmade wares from baked clay and thatch huts. Expect a mélange of pottery, wood- and metalwork as well as beautiful, brightly coloured woven textiles, and jewellery and accessories like shawls. Prices are more down-to-earth than those in malls (Cyberabad got a new InOrbit mega mall in 2009), but that doesn’t mean that bargaining for your souvenirs is taboo. One (important!) thing to note: the market’s bathrooms leave much to be desired so bring your own toilet paper and maybe even a little hand sanitizer.