The Mad Traveller

I’ll never forget the day when the 3 of us planned an overnight 700 km trip to the princely city of Hyderabad- the capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. And the reason - to taste the hyderabi delicacy Biryani.
You may wonder why we decided to travel this long for simply tasting biryani.According to Wikipedia, the name Biryani is derived from the Persian word meaning "fried, roasted”. It originated in Turkey or Persia and brought to South Asia by the Muslim travellers and merchants to the Mughal Empire.
I was born in a place called Ambur very close to Chennai – the capital city of Tamil Nadu , India. Here we proudly claimed with cynical humour that Ambur biryani was “internationally famous all over India”. We were always served Biryani on all occasions – Marriages, Baby naming ceremony, Betrothals, Religious festivals and believe it or not even on funerals.
I am an IT consultant by profession.The only perk we get is to Travel. I landed in Abu Dhabi- capital of United Arab Emirate in 2011. Here I was introduced to Hyderabadi biryani. Well folks, after my first spoon I was in love at first bite.Hyerabadi dum biryani was fiery hot, headily aromatic and absolutely lip-smacking. The biryani is so intoxicatingly fragrant that every time I get a take away pack home that my house feels like a huge biryani Deksa ( the pot in which biryani is made ).Ever since then I told myself that I will one day travel all the way to Hyderabad only to eat its world famous Biryani. (Truly world famous)
I was in Chennai,India for my work for a few days. So one weekend me and 2 others decided to make an overnight trip by train to Hyderabad and return before Monday for work. So we struggled our way to Hyderabad on a crowded over night train sitting close to the smelly toilets as we did not get reserved seats thanks to our last minute planning. The moment we got out of the train we hired an autoriskshaw (Local 3 wheeler taxi) to take us to the best biryani joint. He took us to a place called Paradise biryani. We did not waste anytime ordering our favourite dish. The next few mins was an epiphany of sorts. We even skipped our breakfast so we had enough space for an extra-large serving of the divine biryani. So there I was, eating a genuine Hyderabadi mutton biryani. I soon realised after my first bite that I had my first food orgasm.A deivine feeling that i cannot explain.After eating we rushed to see the Charminar before the next train that will take us back to Chennai.