"Hilton Downs Shutters in Hyderabad'

Another popular Irani hotel in Hyderabad has downed shutters in a depressing trend that is changing the face of Hyderabad.

Yesterday I was in Osmania University campus area and stopped at Hilton to have a cup of tea. It was a favorite joint where I used to meet friends over tea and talk for hours. Though I haven't studied in Osmania colleges we used to meet there. But yesterday I got a mild shock when I noticed that Hilton was no more. The board was removed and the shutters were down. I don't know how long it has been shut. It marks the end of an institution especially for those who studied in the campus colleges. The place used to filled with students discussing their studies and their future plans. I felt sad to see it closed.

Many Irani hotels in Hyderabad are shutting down unable to face competition from swankier hotels. In some cases they are shutting down in return for a hefty amount since space is at a premium in Hyderabad and most of the good Irani hotels are in prime areas. Only true blue Hyderabadis can understand what it means to sit in an Irani hotel and sip tea. It is difficult for outsiders to understand the Hyderabadi's passion for Irani chai.

However, it is better to enjoy the Iranis while they last. Thank God there are several ancient Irani hotels still surviving and serving unbeatable Irani chai and food. There's Paradise, Garden, Bombay Bakery and several others I frequent along with millions of Hyderabadis.

The Mont Blanc Experience

Yesterday was the day I was eagerly waiting for since the day I got a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck fountain pen as a gift some time back in November. I was waiting for a significant day to begin writing with it. It was my birthday yesterday so I thought there’d be no better day to take out the Mont Blanc. I lovingly filled ink in it and started writing in my notebook. The pen just flowed smoothly on the paper and I wished I could go on writing until all the pages in the notebook were filled. But I had nothing much to write about so I reluctantly put the pen back. But I carried it around in my shirt pocket all day showing it off to friends and others.

Now that I have finally started using the Mont Blanc I hope to finish the first draft of my book that is struck at a particular scene. I wasn’t feeling motivated enough to finish the draft though I am only about 50 pages away from the ending. I hope to finish the first draft by mid-March. I am already picturing myself sitting hunched over my table scribbling away with the Mont Blanc as the pages pile up on the table.

The pen’s nib is a ‘Medium’ which is a bit too thick for my taste and I am wondering if I should have the nib changed to a ‘Fine’ one. There’s a Mont Blanc store in Hyderabad at the Hotel Grand Kakatiya. I don’t know if they will agree to do it since the pen came with a warranty (?)book which had no dealer’s stamp. I hope they agree to do it since it is an authentic piece. I had been there yesterday to attend a talk with a scriptwriter but it got too late and I had no time to visit the Mont Blanc store. Sometime next week I plan to visit them and ask about it. Until then I will experience the pure pleasure of writing with my Meisterstuck.

Strange Weather, Stranger People

Nothing much is happening in Hyderabad except that the weather is acting funny. Though normally February is very cold, right now it is warm. One won’t feel like it is winter except early in the morning. Since two days it is cloudy and yesterday it actually rained a little. Not exactly rain but a slight drizzle enough to wash off the dust on the plants at home.


I had been to the numaish, the annual Industrial Exhibition that is one from 1st Jan to Feb 15 every year. This is one place where we don’t seem to be in any particular hurry (unlike on the roads) and every one seemed to be shuffling along slowly. Some just stood rooted to the spot gawking at the sights or stuffing themselves with all those snacks and drinks. There were so many furniture stalls I wonder who would want to buy huge bureaus or sofas at such places.


We went to see the show where four bikes and two cars ride in a round metal cage. The bikes go fast around the cage and though it isn’t heart stopping it appears to be quite dangerous for if any one of the guys loses his balance he will plunge down to the ground. You’d think that such dangerous driving meant the motorcycle drivers had to wear at least helmets if not other protective stuff. Surprisingly they didn’t wear helmets or anything like that. It is a surprise no one noticed it, and also a bigger surprise how the organizers of the Exhibition allow it. Strange people, Hyderabadis.

The Sunday Haul

Yesterday at Abids I didn’t pick up a single book though I noticed a few I was coveting. I saw a good copy of Mary Karr’s ‘The Liar’s Club’, a hardcover edition of Sebastian Junger’s ‘The Perfect Storm’ and also another good copy of Elmore Leonard’s ‘Glitz’. I had seen William Styron’s biography but it seemed too voluminous for me to wade through. Then there were two Peter Mayle books- ‘Toujours Provence’ and ‘Chasing Cezanne’. I have 'Toujours' but I didn’t feel like buying ‘Chasing Cezanne’ because it is a novel and I am only interested in Mayle’s non-fiction.

However, I did not return empty handed. I picked up the September 2007 issue of ‘Conde Naste Traveller’ which I got for only twenty rupees. It had an article by Harriet O’Brien on a trip to the tea gardens of Assam that she made by boat on the mighty Brahmputra river. As usual, the accompanying pictures were just too beautiful to be described in words. I like it when India gets written in travel publications.

Another surprise find of the day was the magazine ‘Script’. I got it for only ten rupees and only after I went home I noticed that it was the absolute latest issue- of Jan-Feb 08! It was brand new and I felt glad I found it. I had never heard of this magazine before so it came as a pleasant surprise finding it. I had also picked up a magazine on running though I don’t run or do any kind of intense physical exercise. I picked up the magazine to learn what is happening in that field. For a writer it always helps to be curious.

Glimpses of Nagpur

I had never been to Nagpur before though a close friend who works there had been inviting me to come over. On Sunday I went to Nagpur to attend an official meeting and stayed there for three and half days. It was a nice trip which ended with a visit to Wardha where I saw the fountain pen used by Mahatma Gandhi.

Nagpur is located in exactly the center of the country I learnt. There is something called the ‘Zero Milestone’ here but I could have only a fleeting glimpse of it. I had wanted to see it later in the day but didn’t get the time.

It was cold the day I reached and colder still the next day when the mercury plunged to 9 degrees. The papers said that it was the coldest day of the season. In summer it touches 49 degrees I was told. These extremes in weather may be due to the fact that there is dense forest all around Nagpur.

Coming from Hyderabad where the traffic is chaotic to say the least, Nagpur appeared like heaven with its thin traffic and open roads. Two wheeler riders don’t wear helmets and every one follows traffic rules. The girls wrap their chunnis around their faces leaving only th eyes uncovered while zipping around on two wheelers.

Food is expensive here and a plate of upma I had for breakfast at a South Indian hotel (Brindavan) cost me twenty two rupees and a cup of coffee was twelve bucks. The other day we had been to a Maharashtrian hotel for local food and I was shocked to see two rotis and a curry (jhunka) cost me eighty bucks. Funnily enough, all the hotels were almost empty and I wonder if it has anything to do with the prices. Or maybe people in Nagpur don’t like to eat out.

I had, on the final day of my trip, found that the largest wood market in Asia, the Lakkadgunj Bazar, is in Nagpur. I hadn’t actually planned any sight seeing trips but the trip to Wardha took up all the time. This was one trip I didn’t plan carefully so ended up doing nothing touristy. I had planned to look up stationery stores to see if I could find any local made fountain pens. I wasn’t able to do this too.

Maybe on the next trip to Nagpur I will get to see all the things I wanted to see there. The only surprising thing was finding Dave Barry’s column in a local paper! It was the Lokmat Times I guess.

Mahatma Gandhi's Fountain Pen

Yesterday I laid my eyes on a famous article used by a world famous man. At Sevagram, I saw the fountain pen Mahatma Gandhi used to write with. It is a simple dip type fountain pen, with only a nib at the end of a wooden holder. But I was glad I saw it because right from the moment my friend told me Wardha was only a hour and half's drive from Nagpur where I had gone to attend a meeting on Sunday, I was curios to know if I would find the pen. I was told that at Sevagram there were displayed certain articles that Gandhiji used everyday and I was actually dying to see if his pen would be there. It was, and that made my trip to Nagpur worth it.

I had seen a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi to a pen maker, Ratnam, in Rajahmundry last year. It was written sometime in 1947, a time when only fountain pens were around. It was written in that beautiful handwriting of his and at that time, I wondered which pen he wrote with. I got the answer yesterday. The pen was displayed in a wooden display case along with his spectacles, the inkstand, two pencils and other articles. I tried to take a picture but the glass on the case kept reflecting the flash. It was a bit dark in 'Bapu Kuti', the hut where Gandhiji stayed so I had to use the flash on my digital camera which was a basic model so I couldn't take a close up of the pen. I got a picture that I hope shows the pen clearly.

Sevagram is 8 kilometres away from Wardha which is about 80 kilometers from Nagpur. The road is good and one can reach the place in an hour and half by car. I had a train to catch so I had to return early. I plan to make more research about Gandhiji's fountain pens and write them here

An Unexpected Trip and Two Books

Yesterday I was told I have to attend a meeting at Nagpur in place of someone who was on leave. It was rather sudden but somehow I got confirmed train tickets. I was glad I was going to Nagpur because a very close friend lives there. It had been quite a long time since I had seen him and I was eager to meet him. I would be returning on Thursday and hence the next post would be on Thursday. But today, I found two good books quite unexpectedly.

I had been to Abids in the afternoon shopping for woollens because I was told it was quite cold in Nagpur. I found that the book sellers had set up their books because today was the Republic Day, a mandatory holiday for shops. Most of the shops were closed today and the Abids booksellers took advantage of the holiday. Anyway, I found Jacquelyn Mitchard's 'The Rest of Us.' It is a collection of her essays and has a subtitle, Despatches from the Mother Ship. It was a hard cover edition and almost new. I picked it up because I love to read personal essays. I got this book for thirty rupees.

The second book I found today was one of the best finds of the year so far. It was a book by two revered book collectors. The book was 'Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship' by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern. These two are the authors of "Old Books, Rare Friends", a book that is quite a bestseller the blurb says. I was glad to find this joint memoir and this too I got for only thirty rupees which is quite a bargain considering it is a hardcover edition and is in excellent condition.

I felt glad finding these two books today. I will write more about them after the Nagpur trip.

Reading Susan Orlean's 'The Orchid Thief'

Until the day before yesterday I hadn’t read anything written by Susan Orlean. After I opened her book, ‘The Orchid Thief’ I wondered why I hadn’t found her before. She writes in a wonderful style that can be only described as arrestingly simple. Her long sentences flow and I just could not stop reading until I finished about fifty pages in one go. Though I read ‘Outside’ and ‘Esquire’, magazines she writes for, on and off, I haven’t come across any articles by Orlean. Maybe I picked all those issues that didn’t have her pieces. My bad luck.

I had picked up ‘The Orchid Thief’ because a friend was searching for it. I am glad I found it because I have discovered another good writer I am planning to read more of. When my friend wrote about the book I had thought it was a novel but I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t, and it turned out to be an engrossing book about orchids, orchid collectors and a madcap thief, Laroche, and is based in Florida. Laroche is as unlikely a character I ever encountered.

I haven’t yet finished the book but it is a wonderful read and some of the sentences are so beautifully simple and funny that I am presenting a couple of them here.

‘Just then I got extremely curious but decided to wait until we were out of the swamp and in a secure government vehicle before I asked the giants what they were in prison for.’

‘He reached for a pot that held the cutest plant in the world. I had vowed that I would acquire not even a single orchid on any of my trips down here, but I thought I might die if I couldn’t have this one.’

This is a sample of Susan Orlean’s exquisite writing. I will write more about this wonderful book after I finish reading it.

Pico Iyer and Everyman's Naipaul, Paul Theroux

With every article that I am reading in ‘Tropical Classical’ I’m finding it difficult not to be a fan of Pico Iyer’s writing. His is such an exquisite style coupled with such startling insights that I’ve now resolved to read all his books. I’ve got only one of his books- Video Nights in Kathmandu- which I plan to read after completing ‘Tropical Classical’. On one hand is the urgent desire to read all the essays in the book and on the other hand is that sinking feeling the book will end pretty soon. I don’t want the book to end and so I’m reading it s-l-o-w-l-y, one essay after another, savoring each sentence.

In his review of ‘Happy Isles of Oceania’ (written by one of my favorite writers, Paul Theroux) which is titled ‘Richard Burton in the Peace Corps’, Pico Iyer writes more about Paul Theroux than the book. He describes Theroux as ‘Everyman’s Naipaul’ and also compares him with Thoreau. Pico Iyer writes that Paul Theroux shares many traits with Thoreau- ‘unassimilable crankiness, the same rage at bigotry, the same quirky erudition.’ It is a balanced portrait that he paints of Theroux and his failings.

One of the minor pleasures of life is discovering that you share some traits with the person you admire. I was glad to read in this review that Theroux is a fish eating vegetarian and drinks green tea. If only I could write as well as him!

The Sunday Haul of Books

Yesterday, being a Sunday, I rode down to Abids after a hearty breakfast, for the weekly book hunt. It was so hot I took along a cap and a bottle of water. I was glad I brought them because the sun was bearing down like anything. In Jan it is supposed to the peak of winter in Hyderabad but it already felt like summer.

After several months I was thrilled to see that a new lot of brand new books had flooded the bazar. Unfortunately they were all books I already have. I picked up a shiny new copy of Woody Allen's 'Getting Even' for only twenty rupees. A friend had asked for it and I am glad I found it. I also saw Mary Karr's 'The Liar's Club', Paul Theroux's 'My Secret History' and other books. I also saw Peter Mayle's 'A Year in Provence' and 'Toujours Provence', good copies but I already have these books.

I finally found a book that I could profit from immensely. It was 'The Art of Reading the Novel' by Philip Freund. The original title of the book was 'How to Become a Literary Critic', it said on the cover page. For years I have been reading just for the pleasure of it and without any serious intention. Now that I am doing this blog I would like to review the books I am reading in an intelligent way, though I doubt if I can do it. Nevertheless I hope the book would help me in reading the books critically and also, maybe write reviews though not like a literary critic. I am wary of literary critics.

This Sunday's haul was small but valuable. I plan to read Philip Freund's book first before beginning to read other books this year so I can read them in a new light.