After two years of the nightmare of COVID shutdown, Hyderabad is bustling with the sounds, smells and the familiar festive vibe of Ramzan.
At 1 a.m., the main road leading to Paramount Colony near Banjara Hills is a dazzle of LED lights, shimmering shop fronts and throngs of shoppers. “Please don’t bargain. I am doing some business this year,” says a shopkeeper hawking skull caps and ‘keffiyeh’ from a kiosk. The shop also has some cloth masks for sale. Some restaurants have a signage about availability of ‘sehri’ beginning from 11 p.m., some other from 2 a.m.
More than a dozen food outlets have popped up on the main road between Toli Chowki and Rethi Bowli selling Ramzan favourites like haleem, patthar ka gosht, dahi vada and falooda. “We don’t close. You can buy paan here for 24 hours. I manage for 12 hours, another boy manages for the rest,” says the paan shop owner near Yousuf Tekri.
The six lanes become two lanes as balloon sellers, free water dispensers, haphazardly parked cars and people helping themselves, take up four lanes as they sample haleem and chai. Across the road, there are announcements of a more spiritual endeavour ‘Direct Donation Drive for Needy People’. Run by Hyderabad Youth Courage, the organisers said they are distributing food, clothes and household utensils to the needy.
It is a different frenzy at the Hussaini Alam, Telangana High Court lane, Medina Hotel and Charminar quadrangle. Foodies are spoilt for choice as dazzlingly lit up streets have stalls selling everything from ‘marag’ to ‘chakna’.
Mujahid of Dewan Hotel shoots videos of the restaurant’s kebabs and also shares the magic ingredient. “I am shooting the video for Instagram. A number of people have come here after seeing the videos. If you want to make soft kebabs like this, you have to add raw papaya to the marination,” he says.
Yards away from the restaurant and his makeshift stalls is Sonu Kebabs, where it is difficult to find a place to stand. The dilemma becomes even more acute when foodies have ‘marag’. The blisteringly hot soup in a small plastic bowl has to be carried to a small table dodging other foodies and a rush of traffic.
During the Taraweeh prayers at Mecca Masjid, the two-year COVID pandemic looks like a distant memory. There is no parking space near the old bus stand where hundreds of two-wheelers and a few cars are parked at 10 p.m. The masjid lit up with fairy lights is full as the maulvi leads the prayers. For two years, only a dozen men were allowed to pray but during this Ramzan, there are thousands of men praying at the same time.
