Five Years later, Hyderabad had transformed into a city, Since I had last visited for an event in 2019. Flyovers, so much of construction happening. And a Metro too! This city felt like another city altogether. The huge spaces of cafes, Restaurants the long wait In Queues. Was this Hyderabad? The Knowledge City, A landmark that Housed offices, Restaurants and a Cafe was like What BKC is to Mumbai! Hi-Tech City and Gochibawli landmarks were like the Magarpata township of Pune. The Jubilee Hill cafes and restaurants were like the Indiranagar and Koramangala of Bangalore or Koregoapark of Pune. And this was just one side of the city I had visited. The retail showrooms were huge, and like how Linking Road Mumbai has standalone stores the Hyderabad city too had them with luxury brands on the main road. Katha cafe felt like Subko in so many ways font, Styling of the space and branding too. The cafes Toops & Katha two of the ones I visited had Corridor Seven coffee being served, A coffee roaster from Nagpur, Mithilesh V and One of the first Aeropress championship winners from India started this. Surprisingly Hyderabad had more vegetarian food options, compared to my last visit. Manam Chocolate Kharkhana. Was an experience. A Chocolate Cafe, Store and Chocolate Factory Experience in Hyderabad. You could taste all the chocolates Bars, ice cream, Chocolate flakes and Barks, Hot chocolate too, A complete chocolate Paradise. The Hyderabad we know as Charminar, Ramoji Film City and Golconda Fort felt very long from the side we were stationed in Hyderabad. The Taj Hotel Falaknuma too was another side. Hyderabad city had become a huge city from what I had travelled to the last time. Hyderabad is surely a city to watch out for! In India.
It’s even a better idea if you get to travel to the same destination for work.
Vienna! The moment you think about that place. There is the background music of Mozart and Beethoven playing behind you.
The warmth of history, the taste of cinnamon Apple strudel.
After a journey of ten long hours of an overnight journey, followed by a quick hour layover at Munich!
Vienna gave us a warm Welcome!
Thirty-five degrees Celsius this was indeed the warmest day too! The reason the warmest day became the hottest for a couple of us in the team! For me definitely, our bags did not make it with us to Vienna!!!
And, it was the first time in my life, I reached my destination without my Bag!
While, We weren’t sure, when will the bag make it to Vienna! I continued sweating it out that day, moving around the Tram and memories flashing back to the last time I visited the place for the first time Eight years ago! With family when we decided to do Vienna, Prague and Budapest!
Belvedere Palace looked so familiar and nothing seemed to have changed, the Spanish riding school walk refreshed so many of the memories of walking around.
Passing through the parliament and walking by Mariahilfer Straße stores, with trees on either side felt it was only yesterday, I was here! The day ended at Coffee Pirates, A new addition to my memories! A speciality coffee roaster and cafe in Vienna, that had the interiors of a signature European cafe. Minimalistic use of colour, with interesting art photos and wooden furniture.
The tram stop at Hauffbonff was a strange memory of arrival and departure to our other destination when we visited the station and enjoyed the Euro Cup atmosphere when Austria was playing on the same day, we had landed in the city of Vienna!
What was different this time was the access to two Venues that were also part of tourist sightseeing, but we had the privilege of being part of an event that was hosted at the venues with some of the best in their businesses. One of the best Wedding planners from India, MEW! Motwane Entertainment and Weddings, to one of the most well-known Indian catering company Foodlink.
To collaborating with the best Viennese food services Any Act to the best catering division of a very well-known coffee brand Dallmayr collaborating with a Michelin star Paul Ivic chef, chef at Tian Vienna, which is one of the 4 world’s best Michelin vegetarian restaurants started and the only one in Vienna.
The Palais Lichtenstein, the space where the After Party was hosted and an exclusive tour organised for the guests, to view the Art Pieces were some just of the highlights of the experience. The Viennese locals, even mentioned. Locals & Tourists don’t have the privilege of viewing each of these rooms.
While meeting the local official In charge of the venue! I had a glance of his wrist from a distance and noticed him wearing a freelancer Raymond Weil! By which he was pleasantly surprised and wasn’t expecting this conversation, during the walk-through.
Belvedere: A palace that would be open for the public while our baraat procession and wedding ceremony would be going on, a typical touristy crowd gathered around to witness, the grandeur of a traditional Indian wedding. The floral decor on the Mandaps to the DJ music playing on the DJ Van! An unusual sight for some of them to have experienced at the Belvedere on a Saturday.
Spanish Riding School( SRS) had a complete makeover. If we hadn’t seen the venue without the decor. It would be hard to imagine, how the space was transformed from a ground for the horses to a stage for an experience of a lifetime with entertainment options of a pianist, playing the instrument in the middle of the stage, A band from Paris singing Hindi Bollywood tracks, like Hindi being their native language. Ballerina dancers and Waltz performance took over the audience completely.
And while all the entertainment was going through a fine dining experience in all sync was planned out and smoothly operated by Dallmayr and food plates were prepared by the chef Paul Ivic The Pumpkin pinenut Ravioli and the Ricotta cheese Ravioli had the sweetness and Blandess enhanced by a special sauce poured over them.
The Golden Kiss: The Signature dish of the evening was a mushroom-filled Filo pastry with Truffle and oyster that had a good balance of all three tastes.
The Pistachio Ring: The Dessert Had the tangy-ness of the passion fruit with the dark chocolate in the pistachio ring that was a base of the dessert, which not only looked tempting, but was also very flavourfull.
A day of understanding the difference between The local ‘Demela’ of Torte! Or Sacher Torte
Where have they gone? In the digital age! It could be hard to recall! When was the last time you used a pen? Pens, for me, have always been a tool to write and to have a piece of design, Art flowing through my fingers in hand. But, it’s been a while since I have noticed anyone buy a nice pen or have one in their pockets. Since childhood, I have been fascinated with these beautiful Parker Pens, for their packaging and colour combinations and design. Every few months, I would stare and plan to buy one in the coming year. Flair, Meter Pens, Was a rage once. They could last a 1000-meter of ink flow. Even when in school, I would be very particular about those Reynolds Racer Gel pens, that were beautifully thick. Then the Trimax were launched like the Uniball Vision pens that were priced at ₹50 for a pen. For at least half the price, You Could get the Trimax one and they would last as long as the examinations. A few years later after school, Lamy pens were always an aspiration. I started using them to write my diary entry. In between over time had got a Pelikan pen too! And All White fountain Pen to write. Cross pens have always been there to use. But, Today it’s hard to find a pen anywhere you go, only places like the hotel keep a pen in the room. In any other place, it’s hard to find one pen with a person. I remember Pilot Pens were a craze too! But in the digital age the only pen one is using is the one on the tablets and portable devices to sketch, Draw or highlight. Where have the Pens gone?
Does India Read? Do Indians Read? And if they do what do they read? Well, India is slowly getting into the habit of reading books! And a lot of them have been enjoying reading books. But, this India that I am talking about is not the one that is into literature books. But, a new emerging audience of readers is discovering reading books is not for the joy of it. But, to improve my English speaking skills, Vocabulary and diction. These readers are the ones who make up the large population that we have. But again are we growing in numbers? Who enjoy reading Mythology, Romance, and Young Adult books. The authors who have successfully managed to capture their audience are the likes of Chetan Bhagat, Preeti Shenoy, Durjoy Datta, Ravinder Singh, Anuja Chauhan, and Robin Sharma to name a few…Others like Amrish Tripathi and Devdutt Patnaik are Gaining popularity amongst new readers who are interested in reading books. But, what are the avid literary Indian readers reading today? They are the ones who like reading Amitav Ghosh, Sudha Murthy, Chitra Banerjee, Arvind Adiga, and Arundhati Roy, which are some of the books which the other Indian audiences are reading. But, the positive side of the reader reading in India is they have started reading books of Indian authors from India.
Ever since Ott platforms have made their way into India, The content option to choose from is huge, You have American Movies, Series to choose from, You have British content to choose and you have the rise of K-Drama, Yakuza’s from Japan to choose from and you have rising options from Latin America and Europe to choose from.
When you have so much choice ,You observe the stories coming from these countries, you notice
Most of the American shows are only highlighting – Race, Identity , law, Super hero’s and supernatural power . A lot of the series are about colour people’s struggle and identity.
British series are all about the Royal family and politics. Series like Crown, Bridgeton, Peaky Blinders.
The content from Korea is all about Escaping, boundaries, Technology and Social Media, Topics which are more current and appealing.
Japan series are all about their food and the relationship with their loved ones, loneliness and storytelling.
Latin America series are all about powerful families and their secrets, Mafia and hunger to control their identity.
European series are about Murders in Scandinavian countries, Cult leader following and humanity with adaption like Man called Otto and Anxious People.
Indian content is also more dominant with the D-world, Gangster control, Corruption and Scams.
Australian series, haven’t made a mark on the platform besides their popular show like Masterchef and food shows. When it comes to fiction. They do have a lot of shows on Politics and the system. Secret City & Stateless as two interesting series.
But, yet when it comes we don’t experiment with the content we stream. We would still watch only American & British and often complain, for it’s lack of interesting stories.
Today, we have a variety of global content to choose from and we still choose the same stories, What makes us avoid experimenting, We are anyways being charged for the month and year, we wouldn’t be paying extra if we shift our content preferences to experiment.
If we don’t experiment with content, We would have makers making the same thing that has a set formula that they believe works globally. But does it work?
A K H I L N A N D A 